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FACTS   AND   FIGURES 


CONCERNING 


THE   HOOSAC   TUNNED. 


By    JOHN  'J.    PIPER. 


FITCHBURa: 

JOHN     J.     PIPER,     PRINTER. 
1866. 


FACTS   AND   FIGURES 


CONCERNING 


THE  HOOSAC  TUNNEL 


JBy    JOHN    J.    PIPEK. 


FITCHBURG: 

JOHN     J.     PIPER,  •   PRINTER 
1866. 


THE   HOOSAC    TUNNEL. 


Iii  his  inaugural  address  to  the  Legislature,  Governor 
Bullock  says,  "There  can  be  no  doubt  that  new  facilities  and 
new  avenues  for  transportation  between  the  West  and  the 
East  are  now  absolutely  needed.  Our  lines  of  prosperity 
and  growth  are  the  parallels  of  latitude  which  connect  us 
with  the  young,  rich  empire  of  men,  and  stock,  and  produce 
lying  around  the  lakes  and  still  beyond.  The  people  of 
Massachusetts,  compact,  manufacturing  and  commercial,  must 
have  more  thoroughfares  through  which  the  currents  of  trade 
and  life  may  pass  to  and  fro,  unobstructed  and  ceaseless, 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  national  granaries,  or  decay 
will  at  no  distant  period  touch  alike  her  wharves  and  her 
workshops.  Let  us  avert  the  day  in  which  our  Common- 
wealth shall  become  chiefly  a  school-house  for  the  West,  and 
a  homestead  over  which  time  shall  have  drawn  silently  and 
too  soon  the  marks  of  dilapidation.  Any  policy  which  is 
not  broad  enough  to  secure  to  us  a  New  England,  having  a 
proper  share  in  the  benefits  of  this  new  opening  era  of  the 
West,  be  assured,  will  not  receive  the  approval  of  the  next 
generation." 

This  important  recommendation  is  what  the  public  had 
reason  to  expect  from  a  man  so  keenly  alive  to  the  interests 
and  welfare  of  the  Commonwealth  as  Governor  Bullock, 
whose  close  observation  and  discernment  had  long  since 
discovered  the  danger,  and  disposed  him  to  take  a  deep 
interest  in  any  adequate  enterprise  by  means  of  which  it 
could  be  averted.  The  reasons  which  have  induced  His 

1  M207665 


Excellency's  convictions  on  this  subject,  and  caused  'the 
apprehensions  he  has  expressed,  are  very  clearly  set  forth  in 
the  following  articles  from  the  Buffalo  Commercial  Adver- 
tiser of  November  25th  and  28th,  1865  : — 

"  To-day,  the  Western  States  are  far  more  bountifully  pro- 
vided with  avenues  of  transportation  than  the  extreme  East. 
This  is  peculiarly  anomalous  and  inexplicable  when  we  con- 
sider the  boasted  enterprise,  wealth  and  shrewdness  of  New 
England,  and  the  dependence  which  always  exists  upon  the 
part  of  a  manufacturing  district  toward  that  section  which 
furnishes  it  with  a  market,  and  from  which  it  obtains  its 
breadstuff.  It  is  fortunate  for  New  England  that  it  does  not 
lie  in  the  line  of  transit  between  the  West  and  its  market, 
or  it  would  have  drawn  about  its  head  a  storm  of  indigna- 
tion which  it  could  not  have  resisted.  The  State  of  New 
York  has  contributed  an  hundred  fold  what  New  England 
has  towards  providing  the  required  facilities  of  traffic,  for 
the  great  West.  Our  Yankee  friends  have  done  much 
toward  facilitating  intercommunication  among  themselves,  but 
very  little  toward  direct  communication  with  the  West. 

It  is  not  a  little  strange  that,  with  all  the  ambitious  effort 
of  Boston  to  become  a  mercantile  emporium,  rivaling  New 
York,  and  with  its  vast  manufacturing  interest,  it  should  have 
but  a  single  direct  avenue  of  traffic  with  the  West.  Yet 
such  is  the  fact.  The  Western  Railroad  between  Albany 
and  Boston  is  the  sole  route  now  in  existence  except  those 
circuitous  lines  via  New  York  City  or  through  Canada.  Our 
down-east  friends,  usually  so  keen  and  enterprising,  seem  to 
have  exhausted  their  energies  in  the  construction  of  that 
road  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  the  consequence  is  that  to- 
day the  business  interests  of  all  New  England  are  suffering 
for  lack  of  the  timely  investment  of  a  few  millions. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  Boston 
is  now  virtually  cut  off  from  its  trade  communication  with 
the  West  for  want  of  facilities  of  transportation.  For  weeks 
past  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  has  ceased  to  take  Boston 
freight,  by  reason  of  its  being  blocked  up  with  other  through 
and  way  freights  at  Sarnia.  The  swollen  tide  of  freight  via 
the  New  York  Central  has  exceeded  the  capacity  of  the 
Western  Road  between  Albany  and  Boston,  and  the  con- 
sequence has  been  felt  in  an  increased  charge  by  the  New 
York  Central  of  twenty  cents  a  barrel  above  New  York 


City  rates,  and,  finally,  that  road  has  been  obliged  to  refuse 
Boston  freight  altogether,  simply  by  reason  of  the  accumu- 
lation and  delay  occasioned  by  the  inability  of  the  Western 
Road  to  forward  it  to  its  destination.  In  like  manner, 
Boston  freight  going  forward  by  canal  is  hindered  and  accu- 
mulated at  Albany.  A  similar  state  of  things  exists  in 
regard  to  most  of  the  westward  bound  Boston  freight,  as 
Boston  jobbers  are  finding  out  to  their  cost.  Merchants  at 
the  West,  who  purchase  in  Boston,  are  six  and  eight  weeks 
in  getting  their  heavy  goods. 

We  are  informed  upon  reliable  authority  that  flour  can  be 
sent  from  Chicago  to  New  York,  by  lake  and  rail  for  $1.90 
per  barrel,  while  very  limited  quantities  only  can  be  sent  to 
Boston  at  $2.25,  and  that  by  the  "  Red  Line  "  $3  a  barrel  is 
demanded. 

New  England  depends  upon  the  West  for  its  bread,  and 
also  for  its  market  for  its  imports  and  manufactures.  If  the 
state  of  things  to  which  we  refer,  continues  much  longer,  it 
will  be  compelled  to  go  to  New  York  both  for  its  bread  and 
its  customers. 

The  West  complains  of  New  York,  because,  forsooth,  it  is 
tardy  in  enlarging  its  canals  to  meet  the  anticipated  necessi- 
ties of  its  future  growth,  and  Boston  has  had  the  assurance 
to  join  in  the  thoughtless  and  unfounded  clamor.  Yet  the 
great  State  of  Massachusetts  has  supinely  stood  still  for 
twenty-five  years  without  making  an  effort  to  overcome  the 
barrier  between  it  and  the  great  West.  During  that  time 
the  Western  road  has  grown  rich,  and  paid  large  dividends- 
from  a  business  which  has  been  greater  than  it  could  trans- 
act, and  to-day  there  exists  an  almost  total  blockade  of  Bos- 
ton freight  at  Albany. 

Surely,  this  does  not  reflect  favorably  on  New  England 
shrewdness  and  enterprise,  neither  does  it  tally  with  New 
England  interest.  Besides,  it  is  detrimental  to  the  business 
interests  of  the  West.  As  the  case  now  stands  the  fault 
rests  with  Massachusetts  alone,  in  not  providing  railroad 
accommodations  east  of  the  Hudson  river.  It  is  also  non- 
sense to  assert,  as  some  will,  that  the  capacity  of  the  Erie 
canal  is  inadequate.  During  the  past  season  it  has  not  been 
taxed  to  half  its  capacity,  and  yet  it  has  found  the  Western 
Road  unable  to  dispose  of  what  Boston  freight  was  offered. 

Western  merchants  and  shippers  ought  to  know  where  the 
fault  lies,  and  to  the  end  that  they  may  be  informed  we  have 


penned  this  article.  Their  true  remedy  is  to  buy  in  New 
York,  and  to  ship  their  produce  to  that  city,  until  Massachu- 
setts shall  provide  adequate  facilities  of  transportation. 

Boston  is  the  natural  eastern  terminus  of  the  great  north- 
ern line  of  transportation,  and  we  should  have  been  glad  to 
have  seen  her  citizens  and  those  of  the  great  state  of  Massa- 
chusetts realize  the  fact.  Their  supineness,  however,  has  lost 
to  them  for  the  present,  if  not  forever,  the  great  commercial 
prize  which  nature  intended  for  them.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  they  will  realize  their  position,  and  make  an  effort  to 
retrieve  their  "  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish  policy.  " 

"  In  a  recent  article  we  took  occasion  to  point  out  the  im- 
portance to  the  country  at  large  of  the  construction  of  ade- 
quate facilities  for  the  accommodation  of  the  traffic  exchanges 
between  the  different  sections  j  and  to  call  the  attention  of  our 
readers  to  the  remarkable  fact  that  while  the  whole  country, 
and  particularly  the  West,  had  undergone  a  wonderful  devel- 
opment requiring  for  its  accommodation  a  corresponding  in- 
crease of  commercial  facilities,  that  New  England  had  stood 
still  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  fact  that  a  great  State 
like  Massachusetts,  with  a  great  emporium  like  Boston,  should 
have  but  a  single  line  of  direct  communication  with  the  West, 
and  that  it  should  supinely  stand  still  and  refuse  to  add  to  it, 
notwithstanding  the  yearly  demonstrations  of  its  growing  in- 
adequacy, seemed  so  strange  as  to  justify  remark.  The  other 
fact  that  the  transit  of  freight  to  and  from  Boston  should  be 
almost  stopped  by  the  inability  of  that  single  railroad  to 
handle  it-^thereby  increasing  rates  and  compelling  purchasers 
as  well  as  sellers  to  go  to  New  York — also  seemed  to  be  in- 
consistent with  our  traditional  ideas  of  eastern  shrewdness. 
Our  remarks  have  received  additional  force  by  the  fact,  sub- 
sequently learned  by  us,  that  there  are  at  the  present  time 
between  four  and  five  hundred  car-loads  of  Boston-bound 
freight  lying  at  Albany  and  Greenbush  awaiting  cars  for  its 
movement  to  its  destination,  while  there  exists  no  stoppage 
whatever  of  New  York  freight,  thus  demonstrating  clearly 
the  inadequacy  of  the  Western  road  to  answer  the  demands 
made  upon  it. 

Since  that  article  was  penned,  information  has  reached  us 
to  the  effect  that  our  Massachusetts  neighbors  have  at  last 
waked  up  to  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and  are  about  to 
enter  vigorously  upon  the  work  of  providing  another  avenue 


of  trade  between  Boston  and  the  West,  by  what  is  known  as 
the  Greenfield  route  which  embraces  the  long  talked  of 
Hoosac  Tunnel.  This  great  enterprise  has  enlisted  the 
energies  of  the  engineers  and  railroad  men  of  Massachusetts 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  with  constantly  varying  prospects 
of  success,  and  at  last  seems  in  a  fair  way  of  being  accom- 
plished. 

The  high  range  of  hills  which  runs  along  the  whole  western 
line  of  Massachusetts,  for  a  long  time  baffled  the  efforts  of  rail- 
road engineers ;  and  the  rival  claims  of  competing  routes  dis- 
tracted the  popular  mind,  and  delayed  the  construction  of 
either.  The  most  eminent  engineers  preferred  the  Northern,  or 
Greenfield  route — involving  the  Hoosac  Tunnel — as  being  the 
most  direct  and  feasible.  In  the  struggle  which  followed,  the 
Southern  route  was  successful,  and  the  Western  road  was 
built  and  opened  in  1842.  The  other  route  was  also  con- 
structed after  a  time,  upon  either  side  of  the  proposed  tunnel, 
but  for  lack  of  the  completion  of  that  great  work,  has  never 
been  anything  but  an  avenue  for  local  travel  and  traffic. 

The  whole  length  of  the  proposed  tunnel  is  25,574  feet, 
and  the  estimated  cost  of  construction  is  about  three  and  a 
quarter  millions.  When  we  consider  the  vital  interest  which 
the  citizens  of  Massachusetts  have  in  the  completion  of  this 
work,  and  the  enormous  interests  to  be  served  by  it,  the  sum 
required  seems  absolutely  trivial,  and  the  withholding  of  it 
really  parsimonious  as  well  as  foolish.  We  are  pleased  to 
learn  that  the  State  is  at  last  about  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to 
this  great  enterprise,  which  will  guaranty  its  speedy  comple- 
tion. This  is  an  indication  of  wisdom  upon  the  part  of  our 
neighbors,  albeit  it  comes  somewhat  tardily. 

Almost  all  the  other  States  that  lie  between  the  great  West 
and  the  Ocean  have  pursued  a  very  different  policy  from  that 
of  New  England,  and  with  very  favorable  results.  New  York, 
which  was  the  pioneer  in  the  matter  of  internal  improvements, 
not  only  built  her  great  Canals,  at  a  cost  of  over  $62,000,000, 
but  also  aided  largely  in  the  construction  of  her  great  through 
lines  of  railroads.  It  contributed  to  the  Erie  road  $3,000,000, 
which  is  now  seen  to  have  been  a  goodjinvestment  despite 
the  fact  that  it  was  entirely  lost  to  the  State.  The  same  pol- 
icy was  pursued  by  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  with  equally 
happy  results. 

We  congratulate  our  New  England  neighbors,  and,  espe- 
cially, the  citizens  of  Boston,  upon  the  improved  prospect  of 


8 

the  completion  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  and  the  opening  of 
another  great  route  to  the  West,  through,  instead  of  over  the 
mountains  which  lie  between  them  and  us.  We  trust  that 
the  obstructions  which  have  existed,  and  still  exist,  in  the 
channels  of  commercial  intercourse  between  New  England 
and  the  West  will  speedily  be  removed,  never  again  to  be 
manifested  in  freight  blockades  or  threatened  diversions  of 
trade." 

The  statements  contained  in  these  two  articles  are  sub- 
stantially true;  and  they  are  not  only  interesting,  but  im- 
portant, as  throwing  much  light  upon  a  subject  which  will, 
doubtless,  occupy  much  of  the  attention  and  time  of  the 
Legislature :  for  the  Western  Railroad  managers  have 
already  opened  their  annual  attack  upon  the  Hoosac  Tunnel, 
through  their  well  known  agents  and  tools,  Bird,  Harris  and 
Seaver,  who  shamelessly  advocate  the  entire  abandonment  by 
the  State  of  an  enterprise  to  the  completion  of  which  her 
word,  and  bond,  and  honor  are  irrevocably  pledged. 

The  Western  Railroad  Company  was  organized  in  Janu- 
ary, 1836,  and  its  road  was  completed  in  1847,  having 
received  aid  from  the  State,  during  the  period  of  its  con- 
struction, to  the  amount  of  five  millions  of  dollars.  The 
terms  upon  which  State  aid  was  granted  were  very  liberal, 
as  they  should  have  been ;  for  the  opening  of  this  line  of 
road  had  become  as  much  a  necessity  to  the  development  of 
the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  wants  of  her  whole  population,  as  the  establishment 
of  schools  and  churches  had  ever  been  to  her  moral  or  edu- 
cational welfare.  The  involvement  of  the  State  in  so  great 
an  enterprise  was  strenuously  resisted  by  timid  and  narrow 
minded  legislators;  but  the  representations  of  those  saga- 
cious and  far  seeing  men  who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the 
work,  prevailed,  and  Massachusetts  was,  thus  early  in  the 
history  of  railroads,  committed  to  a  policy  which  has,  within 
a  few  years,  not  only  trebled  her  productions  and  wealth,  but 
made  her  the  first  and  foremost  of  all  her  sister  States 
which  are  honored  for  enterprise,  prudence  and  wisdom. 


9 

Many  of  the  short  sighted  legislators,  who  voted  against 
granting  State  aid  to  the  Western  Railroad  Company  are 
now  living,  but  we  doubt  if  one  can  be  found  who  is  not 
ashamed  of  his  action. 

The  increase  of  business  over  the  Western  road  since  the 
first  year  of  its  operation,  would  seem  incredible,  were  it 
not  so  thoroughly  established  by  the  figures  of  its  early  and 
later  annual  reports.  Yet,  with  a  double  track  nearly  to  Al- 
bany, and  every  means  which  ingenuity  can  devise,  or  money 
procure,  at  their  command,  its  managers  are  unable  to  meet 
the  demand  upon  it — its  capacity  is  nearly  exhausted — and 
was,  long  ago,  so  great  is  the  pressure  against  our  western 
border,  from  the  overflowing  granaries  of  the  West.  From 
a  feeble  association,  begging  for  assistance  at  the  doors  of 
the  State  House,  the  Western  Railroad  Company  has  become 
a  powerful  corporation.  Its  certificates  of  stock,  which, 
about  the  time  the  road  went  into  operation,  were  a  drug  in 
the  market  at  $40,  now  command  $130  to  $150.  Yet  it  is  a 
fact  that  on  the  first  day  of  last  November,  five  hundred  car 
loads  of  freight  were  delayed  at  Albany,  and  could  not  be 
transported  over  the  Western  road  in  less  time  than  ten  days. 
And  the  inability  of  this  road  to  meet  our  public  needs,  and 
the  demands  made  upon  it,  from  the  West,  is  no  new  thing ; 
it  has  been  so,  for  years,  though  four  competing  lines  have 
opened  since  1850,  which,  together,  transport  about  the  same 
amount  of  through  freight  as  the  Western  road.  The  bridge 
over  the  Hudson  at  Albany,  the  completion  of  the  double 
track,  and  better  management  might  afford  a  temporary  and 
partial  relief.  But  if  these  improvements  had  been  already 
effected,  they  would  not  have  prevented  the  freight  blockade 
at  Albany  last  fall. 

Should  our  friend  of  the  Salem  Gazette,  or  any  of  the  edi- 
tors who  quote  Mr.  F.  W.  Bird,  and  write  short  paragraphs,  more 
flippantly  than  intelligently,  about  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  chance 
to  be  at  the  freight  yard  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  in  Charles- 
town,  on  the  arrival  of  a  train  of  New  York  Central  Railroad 
2 


10 

cars,  laden  with  flour,  grain,  or  other  products  of  the  West, 
he  would  doubtless  be  as  much  puzzled  to  know  how  they 
got  there,  as  he  would  be,  if,  standing  at  the  heading  of  the 
tunnel,  he  should  endeavor  to  reconcile  his  situation  (half  a  mile 
from  daylight)  with  the  calculations,  statements  and  predictions 
of  Mr.  Bird  and  other  opponents  of  the  Tunnel  enterprise.  If 
our  friend  were  set  down  at  the  freight  depot  of  the  Worces- 
ter and  Nashua  Railroad,  in  Worcester,  he  would  again  be 
surprised  to  witness  the  arrival  of  freight-laden  cars,  bearing 
the  same  mark  as  those  he  saw  at  Charlestown.  Upon 
inquiry  of  the  freight  agents  he  would  learn  that  freight  for 
Boston  and  Worcester,  is  transported  from  Schenectady,  over 
the  Washington  and  Saratoga  road,  and  from  Troy,  over  the 
Troy  and  Boston  and  Western  Vermont,  to  Rutland,  Vt., 
and  thence,  by  the  Rutland  and  Cheshire  roads  to  Fitchburg, 
and  from  there  to  Boston  and  Worcester  over  other  roads. 
By  glancing  at  a  map  the  intelligent  reader  will  at  once 
observe  what  a  circuitous  and  lengthened  line  of  communication 
between  the  New  York  Central  road  and  the  cities  of  Bos- 
ton and  Worcester  is  furnished  by  the  connecting  roads 
above  named.  The  distance  from  Schenectady  to  Boston 
via  Rutland  is  247  miles,  while  it  is  but  217  by  way  of  the 
Western  road.  The  distance  from  the  same  point  to  Wor- 
cester by  the  Rutland  route  is  222  miles,  and  by  the  West- 
ern road  only  172.  Yet  because  the  Western  road  has  not 
capacity  to  do  the  business,  the  produce  dealers  of  Eastern 
and  Central  Massachusetts  are  compelled  to  resort  to  this 
roundabout  way  of  transportation  as  one  of  their  means  of 
relief.  But  this  is  not  the  only  channel,  nor  the  most 
indirect,  which  the  irrepressible  stream  of  Western  trade 
with  the  East  has  created,  as  it  approaches  its  natural  outlet, 
Boston ;  as  the  Mississippi,  scorning  the  narrow  embouchure 
which  satisfied  its  youthful  flow,  now  pours  its  resistless 
torrents,  through  numerous  passes  to  the  Gulf.  Besides  that 
already  described,  there  are  three  other  lines  competing  with 
the  Western  road  in  the  transportation  of  Western  freight  to 


11 

Boston.  These  are  the  Grand  Trunk,  the  Ogdensburg,  and 
the  Providence  and  Erie.  Few  persons  know  that  cotton* 
from  St.  Louis,  for  supplying  the  mills  of  Lowell  and  Law- 
rence, is  unladen  in  Boston  from  vessels  which  received  their 
cargoes  at  Portland,  but  such  is  the  fact,  the  cotton  having 
been  transported  over  the  Great  Western  and  Grand  Trunk 
roads. 

But  these  four  long,  and  indirect  lines,  with  their  single 
track,  are  in  the  frame  situation  as  the  Western  road;  their 
capacity  is  exhausted,  so  far  as  through  freight  is  concerned, 
this  part  of  the  business  of  all  the  four  hardly  exceeding  that 
of  the  Western  road. 

To  prove  the  utter  incapacity  of  these  five  lines  of  com* 
munication  between  us  and  the  West,  to  supply  our  wants, 
and  meet  the  demands  made  upon  them,  we  need  only  state 
the  fact  that  in  November  and  December  last,  many  of  the 
produce  dealers  and  grocers  in  Worcester,  were  unable  to  sup- 
ply their  customers,  on  account  of  the  detention  of  freight 
at  Albany,  Detroit  and  Ogdensburg.  We  may  add,  by  way 
of  illustration,  that  the  immense  loss  of  property  occasioned 
by  the  burning  of  a  large  freight  depot  at  Detroit,  and  by 
which  so  many  New  England  consignees  severely  suffered, 
was  one  of  the  incidental  consequences  of  the  incapacity  of 
these  lines  of  New  England  railroads  to  do  the  work 
required  of  them.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  consider  further 
the  capacity  of  the  Western  Railroad,  but  the  facts  already  given 
are  sufficient  to  show  the  necessity  of  opening  another  through 
and  direct  route  from  the  Hudson  to  Boston. 

The  next  question  to  be  considered,  if,  indeed,  there  can 
be  any  question  about  it,  is  how  shall  the  new  route  be 
located  ?  We  have  shown  that  another  is  necessary  in  order 
to  accommodate  through  business,  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  West,  and  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  entire  State. 
But  this  is  not  by  any  means  the  whole  argument.  Central 
and  Southern  Massachusetts  are  covered  with  a  net  work  of 
railroads,  from  Cape  Cod  Bay  to  the  New  York  border,  yet 


12 

Northern  Massachusetts,  from  Fitchburg  westward,  has  but  a 
single  road,  and  that  terminating  at  Greenfield,  nearly  forty 
miles  from  North  Adams,  where  the  broken  line  of  communi- 
cation is  again  taken  up.  Hence  it  is,  that,  while  villages 
have  become  large  towns,  and  towns  populous  cities,  all  over 
the  rest  of  the  State,  this  section  has  remained  comparatively 
undeveloped;  and  the  whole  tier  of  towns  lying  along 
the  line  of  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts,  though  steadily 
growing,  through  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  their  skillful 
artisans  and  mechanics,  and  the  facilities  afforded  them  by 
the  last  named  road,  have  yet  suffered  and  languished  for 
want  of  the  material  so  abundant  in  this  undeveloped  region 
between  Greenfield  and  the  mountain  barrier  beyond. 

The  water  power  of  the  Deerfield  river  is  immense,  its 
fall  along  the  line  of  the  Troy  and  Greenfield  road  being 
nearly  six  hundred  feet ;  and  this  magnificent  force  is  now 
idle,  except  at  Shelburne  Falls,  though  the  finest  privileges 
are  scattered  along  the  whole  course  of  the  river.  Messrs. 
Lamson  &  Goodnow,  who  employ  four  hundred  men  at  Shel- 
burne Falls,  in  manufacturing  cutlery,  state  that  the  Deerfield 
and  North  rivers,  at  that  place,  afford  a  one-thousand-horse 
power.  Along  the  course  of  Miller's  river,  between  Athol 
and  Deerfield  are  also  many  excellent  privileges  unimproved. 
At  Montague  are  Turner's  Falls,  on  the  Connecticut,  with  a 
power  sufficient  to  operate  the  mills  of  Lowell,  Lawrence 
and  Manchester.  All  these  splendid  privileges  only  await 
the  opening  of  the  Tunnel  route.  Many  of  them  would  be 
at  once  improved  were  the  road  completed  to  the  mouth  of 
the  tunnel.  Messrs.  Lamson  and  Goodnow  state  that  they 
shall  double  their  present  force  of  four  hundred  men,  as 
soon  as  it  is  open  to  Shelburne  Falls. 

Some  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  from  the  Eastern  end  of  the 
tunnel  lie  extensive  forests  of  spruce  and  pine,  through 
which  a  highway  has  already  been  surveyed,  and  which  will 
be  built  to  the  tunnel,  as  soon  as  the  road  is  completed  to 
that  point.  The  whole  surrounding  region  abounds  in  lurn- 


13 

ber  of  almost  every  description,  which  would  become  very 
valuable  when  the  road  is  built,  to  say  nothing  of  the  ex- 
tensive formations  of  stone,  soapstone  and  serpentine  which 
are  found  there.  Though  the  Deerfield  meadows  afford 
some  of  the  finest  farms  in  New  England,  the  tillage  land 
will  not  compare  in  extent  with  that  along  the  Western  road ; 
but  in  every  other  respect  the  resources  and  latent  wealth  of 
the  Tunnel  route  are  infinitely  superior  to  those  of  the  West- 
ern line. 

Six  years  ago,  and  twenty-three  years  after  the  Western  road 
was  opened,  the  population  lying  west  of  Springfield  within 
ten  miles  of  the  Western  road  on  a  distance  of  forty-four 
miles,  was  42,050 ;  while  that  west  of  Greenfield,  within  ten 
miles  of  the  Tunnel  line  on  the  same  distance,  without  any 
railroad  at  all  was  32,146.  According  to  the  average  rate  of 
increase,  the  population  along  the  Tunnel  line,  would  be 
more  than  doubled  in  twenty-three  years.  Were  the  moun- 
tain barrier  pierced,  and  communication  opened  with  the 
West,  and  the  magnificent  water  power  of  the  Deerfield  made 
available,  who  doubts  that  this  population  would  be  increased 
fourfold  in  that  space  of  time :  or  that  more  than  one  town 
would  spring  up  between  Greenfield  and  the  Hoosac,  in  a 
few  years,  which  would  rival  North  Adams  in  growth  and 
prosperity ;  or  that  in  far  less  time  than  it  has  taken  Lowell 
to  acquire  her  present  importance,  a  larger  city  than  Lowell 
would  stand  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  at  Turner's 
Falls  ? 

With  the  requisite  railroad  facilities  supplied,  it  is  certain 
that  the  growth  of  a  region  so  abounding  in  the  most  essen- 
tial reliance  of  mechanical  industry,  as  Northwestern  Mass- 
achusetts, cannot  be  measured  by  the  snail's  pace  which 
marks  the  progress  of  an  agricultural  district.  The  farmer's 
interests  are  indeed  equally  promoted  with  those  of  other 
industrial  classes,  by  the  opening  of  railroads,  but  these  do 
not  increase  the  number  of  farms  or  farmers  within  our 
borders,  nor  stimulate  the  growth  of  agricultural  towns.  It 


14 

is  mainly  by  her  manufactures  and  commerce  that  Mass- 
achusetts has  become  so  prosperous  and  wealthy.  It  is 
because  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  whole 
State  require  it,  that  another  route  to  the  West  has  become 
a  necessity;  and  it  is  because  such  immense  resources  yet 
remain  to  be  developed,  and  such  a  gigantic  power  to  be 
employed,  in  Northern  Massachusetts  that  the  new  route 
must  pierce  the  Hoosac  Mountain,  if  it  is  possible  and  prac- 
ticable. 

That  it  is  possible  to  tunnel  the  Hoosac  Mountain  cannot 
be  doubted  by  any  sane  person  who  has  inspected  the  half 
mile  already  excavated.  All  of  the  eminent  engineers,  whose 
reports  upon  the  enterprise  have  been  published,  say  it  can 
be  done ;  nor  do  any  of  its  opponents  pretend  to  question  its 
practicability.  But  in  order  to  estimate  properly  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  work,  its  possible  and  probable  cost,  and  the 
time  within  which  it  can  be  done,  it  is  necessary  to  know 
what  has  been  accomplished  in  this  department  of  civil  engi- 
neering. Fortunately,  this  needed  information  is  contained 
in  Mr.  Charles  W.  Storrow's  very  able  report  on  European 
tunnels.  Mr.  Storrow  is  a  distinguished  civil  engineer,  who 
made  a  journey  to  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1862,  by  request 
of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel  Commissioners,  and  with  the  approval 
of  the  Governor  and  Council,  for  the  purpose  of  examining 
the  most  important  tunnels  there  constructed,  and,  especially, 
the  one  in  progress  under  the  Alps.  He  describes  twenty- 
two  tunnels  which  he  visited,  besides  that  of  Mt.  Cenis. 
Fourteen  of  these  are  in  England,  seven  in  France,  and  one 
in  Switzerland.  Two  of  them  are  upwards  of  three  miles 
long,  and  many  of  them  between  one  and  two  miles.  Some 
of  the  shafts  were  nearly  as  deep  as  the  central  shaft  of  the 
Hoosac.  Some  of  these  excavations  were  made  without  the 
aid  of  shafts,  others  wholly  by  means  of  shafts,  without 
working  from  the  ends  at  all. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  in  the  construction  of  so  many 
subterranean  ways,  in  such  different  sections  of  the  continent, 


15 

almost  every  conceivable  geological  formation  must  have 
been  traversed ;  and  so  it  appears  from  Mr.  Storrow's  report. 
Granite,  quartz,  oolite,  limestone,  shale,  slate,  sandstone, 
gravel,  sand,  clay  and  marl,  were  the  material  through  which 
with  pick  and  spade,  drill  and  shovel,  the  patient  workmen 
made  their  way.  Not  unfrequently,  more  than  half  the 
varieties  of  rock  and  earth  we  have  named  were  met  with  in 
the  same  tunnel.  Sometimes  the  work  would  be  interrupted 
and  temporarily  abandoned  in  consequense  of  an  inundation 
of  water,-  sometimes  enormous  masses  of  gravel  and  sand 
would  work  through  into  a  shaft  or  tunnel,  with  disastrous 
and,  in  two  instances,  with  fatal  consequences.  In  many  in- 
stances, work  was  discontinued  for  years,  for  want  of  funds, 
and  then  afterward  renewed,  with  eventual  success.  In 
fact,  about  the  average  amount  of  those  ordinary  and 
inevitable  obstacles  which  stand  in  the  way  of  all  great 
enterprises,  were  encountered  by  the  engineers  and  contract- 
ors, in  the  building  of  these  tunnels ;  but  time,  money,  and 
skill,  never  failed  to  remove  every  difficulty.  But  we  pro- 
pose to  extract,  and  condense  from  Mr.  Storrow's  report,  a 
few  of  the  main  facts  about  some  of  the  most  important  of 
these  works;  as  the  report  has, not  been  read,  or  even  seen 
by  one  in  a  hundred. 

The  "Box  Tunnel"  between  Chippenham  and  Bath  is  more 
than  a  mile  and  three  quarters  in  length.  Nearly  one  half 
its  length  passes  through  a  kind  of  limestone  rock,  and  the 
other  through  clay,  the  clay  end  being  lined  with  masonry. 
Five  shafts  were  sunk,  the  deepest  being  about  three  hundred 
feet.  "  During  the  construction  of  this  tunnel,  great  difficul- 
ties were  encountered  from  the  excessive  quantity  of  water 
which  inundated  the  works,  sometimes  even  occasioning  their 
partial  suspension,  and  powerful  means  were  required  to 
overcome  the  obstacles.  At  one  time  the  water  fairly  got 
the  mastery  over  the  machinery  used  for  its  removal,  and  it 
was  only  after  an  additional  set  of  pumps  worked  by  a  fifty 
horse  power  engine,  that  the  work  could  be  resumed."  This 


16 

tunnel  was  built  in  five  years,  and  its  cost  was  about  $1,750,- 
000,  or  about  $547  a  yard. 

The  Woodhead  Tunnel,  on  the  Manchester  and  Lincoln- 
shire Railway,  is  upwards  of  three  miles  long.  It  was  origi- 
nally built  for  a  single  track,  its  dimensions  being  14  feet 
wide  at  the  head  of  the  rails,  and  18  feet  3  in.  high  from  the 
rails  to  the  under  side  of  the  arch ;  which  are  almost  exactly 
the  dimensions  of  the  present  section  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel. 
After  a  few  years  of  use,  the  increase  of  business  required 
another  track  and  so  a  second  tunnel  of  exactly  the  same  size 
was  built  parallel  with  the  first.  It  is  a  double  tunnel  with 
a  thick  dividing  wall  between,  pierced  with  twenty-one  arch- 
ed openings.  Five  of  the  original  shafts  have  been  kept 
open.  The  deepest  of  these  is  more  than  six  hundred  feet, 
and  the  least  about  three  hundred.  The  rock  through  which 
the  tunnel  passes  consists  of  millstone  grit,  a  hard  material, 
and  shale,  a  kind  of  indurated  clay. 

The  Kilsby  Tunnel  is  more  than  a  mile  and  a  quarter  long, 
and  is  built  in  Roman  or  metallic  cement,  under  a  bed  of 
quicksand,  from  which  it  took  nine  months  to  pump  the 
water,  through  shafts  on  either  side  of  the  sand  bed.  During 
a  considerable  portion  of  that  time,  the  water  pumped  out 
was  two  thousand  gallons  a  minute.  The  quicksand  ex- 
tended over  1350  feet  of  the  length  of  the  tunnel. 

The  Watford  Tunnel  is  a  mile  and  one  tenth  long,  excavat- 
ed entirely  from  chalk  and  loose  gravel,  the  treacherous  na- 
ture of  which  rendered  it  a  work  of  great  difficulty,  streams 
of  gravel  and  sand  sometimes  pouring  through  the  fissures  of 
chalk,  like  water. 

The  Netherton  Tunnel  is  one  mile  and  three  quarters  long. 
For  its  construction  17  shafts  were  sunk,  their  total  depth 
being  3,083  feet,  the  least  depth  of  any  one  being  63  feet, 
and  the  greatest,  344  feet.  There  were  36  faces  to  work  at, 
and  the  progress  at  each  face  was  10  1-2  feet  per  month. 
The  tunnel  was  completed  in  two  years. 

From  these  brief  descriptions  of  a  few  of  the  tunnels  in 


England  examined  by  Mr.  Storrow,  one  can  form  a  pretty 
correct  opinion  of  the  ordinary  difficulties  in  tunneling  which 
have  been  met  and  overcome  by  the  English  engineers.  Mr. 
Storrow  says  that  tunnels  are  not  considered  there  such 
formidable  works  as  they  have  generally  been  esteemed  in 
our  Northern  States.  They  are  so  common  that  they  have 
long  ceased  to  attract  the  attention  of  travelers,  more  than 
eighty  miles  in  aggregate  length  being  already  in  use.  Mr. 
Storrow  estimates  the  average  progress  made  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  English-  tunnels  at  about  thirty  feet  per 
month  on  one  face,  and  that  the  cost  per  yard  varies  from 
$125  to  $250, -for  ordinary  tunnels;  but  where  peculiar  diffi- 
culties were  met,  the  cost  has  reached  to  from  $500  to  $750 
per  yard. 

The  Hauenstein  Tunnel  in  Switzerland,  one  mile  and  an 
eighth  in  length,  was  from  four  to  five  years  in  being  con- 
structed. Two  shafts  were  sunk,  one  417  feet,  and  the 
other  558  feet  deep.  Portions  of  the  shafts  and  tunnel  were 
lined  with  masonry  on  account  of  the  water  and  sand,  and 
varying  firmness  of  the  strata  passed  through,  all  of  which 
caused  many  difficulties  and  delays.  The  progress  made 
between  the  intervals  of  obstruction,  varied  from  fifty-six  to 
one  hundred  and  nine  feet  per  month  on  a  face.  The  cost 
was  about  $400  per  running  yard. 

The  Nerthe  Tunnel  in  France,  is  nearly  three  miles  in 
length.  For  nine  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  its  length  it  is 
in  rock  cutting,  where  arching  was  unnecessary.  The  re- 
mainder is  lined  with  masonry.  Twenty-four  shafts  were 
sunk,  varying  in  depth  from  sixty-five  to  two  hundred  and 
sixty-two  feet.  The  work  was  completed  in  three  years,  and 
cost  $412  per  running  yard. 

The  Tunnel  of  Rilly,  on  the  line  from  Paris  to  Strasbourg, 
is  a  little  more  than  two  miles  long.  Eleven  shafts  were 
commenced,  two  of  which  were  abandoned  on  account  of  the 
abundance  of  water,  the  others  were  completed.  In  some  of 
the  shafts  the  water  was  so  troublesome  that  it  was  necessary 
3 


18 

to  use  for  curbs  cast  iron  cylinders,  five  feet  in  diameter,  and 
about  three  feet  long,  bolted  together.  The  time  consumed 
in  the  construction  of  this  tunnel  was  three  years  and  four 
months.  It  passes  through  a  chalk  formation,  which  was,  in 
some  places,  so  seamy,  that  great  precaution  was  necessary 
to  prevent  the  falling  in  of  large  masses.  The  cost  was 
$432  per  running  yard. 

Mr.  Storrow  visited  and  examined  several  other  French 
tunnels,  and  his  reports  upon  them  are  full  of  interest ;  but 
the  abstracts  given  are  sufficient  to  show  the  various  ob- 
stacles and  difficulties  encountered  by  the  English  and  French 
engineers  in  the  prosecution  of  their  work,  as  well  as  the 
cost,  and  the  success  which  rewarded  their  skill  and  perse- 
verance. We  now  come  to  the  great  tunnel  under  the  Alps, 
the  most  remarkable  and  gigantic  enterprise  ever  attempted 
in  civil  engineering.  Our  facts  in  regard  to  it  are  derived 
from  Mr.  Storrow's  report,  (which  it  will  be  remembered  was 
made  in  November,  1862,)  and  from  a  very  able  account  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review  of  July,  1865. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  connect  France  and  Italy,  by 
a  continuous  line  of  railroad,  by  piercing  the  great  Alpine 
barrier  which  separates  Savoy  from  Piedmont,  and  thus  con- 
necting the  valleys  of  Rochmolles  and  the  Arc.  When  the 
scheme  was  first  suggested  it  seemed  like  a  dream  of  enthu- 
siasts. The  distance  would  be  more  than  seven  miles.  No 
shaft  could  be  sunk,  as  it  was  estimated  that  it  would  take 
forty  years  to  reach  by  that  means  the  line  of  the  axis  of  the 
tunnel.  The  gallery  must  then  be  constructed  by  horizontal 
cutting  from  the  two  ends.  How  were  the  workmen  to 
breathe  ?  What  chasms,  unfathomable  abysses  and  resistless 
torrents  might  not  be  encountered  ?  Was  it  certain  that  the 
two  sections  commenced  from  the  opposite  ends  would  not 
miss  and  pass  each  other  in  the  middle  of  the  mountain  ? 
But  as  the  subject  was  more  thoroughly  discussed,  these 
doubts  and  fears  seem  gradually  to  have  faded  away,  and  a 
conviction  took  possession  of  the  public  mind  that  such  a 


19 

tunnel  was  practicable.  This  conviction  at  last  assumed  form 
and  development  through  the  genius  of  Messrs.  Sommeiller, 
Grattoni  and  Grandis,  three  young  Italian  engineers,  who 
have  won  for  themselves  a  nobler  fame  than  that  of  either  of 
the  great  generals  who  led  their  armies  over  the  Alps.  It 
was  their  good  fortune  to  have  secured  the  confidence  of  one 
of  the  most  enlightened  statesmen  of  modern  times,  Count 
Cavour,  the  energetic  minister  of  Victor  Emanuel,  who, 
throughout  all  the  doubts,  perplexities  and  embarrassments 
attending  the  first  stage  of  a  new  and  bold  enterprise,  ex- 
posed to  criticisms,  sometimes  ignorant,  sometimes  malevo- 
lent, on  the  part  of  politicians  and  professional  men,  gave 
these  engineers  his  "  constant,  earnest  and  sanguine  support 
and  encouragement." 

It  appears  that  an  English  engineer  had  patented  a  ma- 
chine for  drilling  by  steam,  by  means  of  which  the  drills 
were  darted  forward  against  the  opposing  •  rock  with  great 
velocity  and  force.  But  steam  could  not  be  used  in  the 
tunnel,  where  the  great  desideratum  is  a  supply  of  fresh  air. 
In  the  meantime  Messrs.  Sommeiller,  Grattoni  and  Grandis 
liad  turned  their  attention  to  the  question  of  compressed  air 
as  a  motive  power,  and  after  a  long  series  of  experiments; 
gave  to  the  world  as  the  result  of  their  joint  ingenuity,  a 
machine  which  acts  simply  by  the  force  of  air  reduced  to 
one-sixth  of  its  ordinary  volume,  by  means  of  the  pressure  of 
water.  The  quick  perception  and  practical  genius  of  our 
three  engineers  soon  enabled  them  to  combine  their  machine 
with  the  perforating  apparatus  above  named,  so  that  the  com- 
pressed air  took  the  place  of  steam,  and  performed  its  work 
perfectly.  This  combination  is  the  machine  which  has  been 
in  successful  operation  under  the  Alps  since  June,  1861,  and 
which,  greatly  improved  and  perfected  by  Yankee  ingenuity, 
is  about  to  be  applied  to  the  Hoosac  Mountain. 

Before  proceeding  to  give  some  account  of  the  Alps  Tun- 
nel, it  should  be  stated  that  it  is  a  national  work,  and  not  a 
commercial  speculation.  It  was  originally  undertaken  by 


20 

Sardinia,  within  whose  territorial  limits  it  was  then  wholly 
included.  The  cession  of  Savoy  to  France  brought  nearly 
half  the  tunnel  into  French  territory,  and  by  the  convention 
establishing  the  new  boundary  between  France  and  Italy  it 
was  stipulated  that  this  great  national  work  should  be  con- 
tinued, should  remain  exclusively  under  the  control  of  the 
Italian  engineers,  and  that  France  should  pay  into  the  Sar- 
dinian treasury  its  proportion  of  the  cost,  according  to  an 
estimate  then  made  and  considered  final,  and  fixed  at  3000 
francs  for  each  running  metre,  equivalent  to  $550  for  each 
running  yard  of  its  length  in  French  territory.  The  work 
has  remained,  therefore,  as  it  was,  under  the  exclusive  direc- 
tion of  M.  Grattoni  and  M.  Sommeiller,  the  engineers ;  and 
a  French  commission  visit  the  work  from  time  to  time,  by 
order  of  the  French  government,  to  view  its  condition,  ascer- 
tain its  progress,  and  vouch  for  the  amount  to  be  paid  to 
Sardinia. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  give  a  detailed  description  of  the 
mode  by  which  the  compressed  air  is  made  to  act  on  the  per- 
forating machines  at  Mount  Cenis.  The  problem  was  how 
to  get  a  constant  equable  supply  of  air  compressed  to  one- 
sixth  of  its  ordinary  bulk.  To  effect  this  a  reservoir  was 
constructed  at  Bardonneche,  elevated  to  a  height  of  eighty- 
two  feet  above  the  works,  which  furnishes  a  moving  force  of 
two  hundred  and  eight  horse  power,  that  being  all  which  is 
required  to  operate  the  drills  and  ventilate  the  tunnel.  The 
reservoir  is  supplied  by  a  never  failing  mountain  stream. 
From  the  compressing  works,  the  air  is  conveyed  in  a  pipe 
into  the  tunnel  to  the  drilling  machines  ]  another  pipe  con- 
veying water  to  wash  out  the  drill  holes.  At  the  Fourneaux 
end  of  the  tunnel,  the  reservoir  is  supplied  with  water  by 
means  of  pumps. 

The  compressed  air  and  water  being  ready  for  their  work, 
an  iron  frame  containing  the  perforating  needles  moves  along 
the  rails  and  confronts  the  rock  which  is  to  be  attacked  in 
the  gallery  or  heading.  The  frame  is  armed  with  nine  or  ten 


21  » 

perforating  machines  arranged  so  that  the  greatest  number  of 
holes  can  be  bored  in  the  center  of  the  opposing  mass  of  rock. 
To  each  of  these  are  attached  flexible  tubes,  one  containing 
the  compressed  air  which  drives  the  drills,  and  the  other  wa- 
ter, which  is  injected  into  the  holes  as  they  are  bored.  The 
machine  consists  of  two  parts  j  the  one  a  cylinder  for  pro- 
pelling the  drill,  by  means  of  a  piston,  and  the  other  a  rotary 
apparatus  for  working  the  valve  of  the  striking  cylinder,  and 
turning  the  drill  on  its  axis  at  each  successive  stroke.  To 
bore  eight  holes  of  the  required  depth,  the  piston  rod  gives 
57,600  blows.  The  action  of  each  machine  is  independent 
of  the  other,  so  that  if  one  of  them  is  broken,  or  gets  out  of 
order,  that  of  the  rest  is  not  delayed.  The  drills  act  at  diff- 
erent angles  so  as  to  pierce  the  rock  in  all  directions,  and 
when  the  requisite  number  of  holes  have  been  drilled,  the 
iron  frame  is  pushed  back,  and  the  central  holes  are  charged 
and  exploded.  The  smaller  surrounding  holes  are  then 
charged  and  fired.  At  each  blast,  a  strong  jet  of  compressed 
air  is  thrown  into  this  advanced  gallery  to  scatter  the  smoke 
and  supply  air  for  respiration.  Wagons  are  next  pushed  for- 
ward and  filled  with  the  fragments  of  broken  rock,  which  are 
conveyed  to  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  and  dumped  down  the 
side  of  the  mountain.  After  each  blast  a  fresh  relay  of  work- 
men come  in,  and  the  same  operation  is  repeated  night  and 
day. 

One  of  the  objections  urged  against  the  use  of  compressed 
air  as  a  motive  of  force  was,  that  if  it  were  conveyed  a  long  dis- 
tance it  would  lose  so  much  of  its  elasticity  or  expansive 
power,  that  it  would  be  unavailable  for  any  practical  purpose. 
But  this  conjecture  was  confuted  by  facts.  It  was  found  that 
the  loss  of  pressure  at  the  ends  of  the  conduit  pipes  where  the 
air  is  applied,  as  compared  with  the  pressure  in  the  reservoir 
is  only  one  sixteenth  of  the  whole.  M.  Sommeiller  calculates 
that  in  the  center  of  the  tunnel,  a  distance  of  three  miles  and 
three  quarters  from  the  reservoir,  he  will  be  able  to  apply  the 
necessary  pressure  of  six  atmospheres.  That  M.  Sommeiller 


22 

is  correct  in  this  opinion  appears  to  be  conclusively  proved 
by  the  latest  accounts  from  Mt.  Cenis,  which  state  that  the 
work  is  steadily  progressing,  that  one  half  of  the  entire 
length  would  be  excavated  by  the  first  of  January  1866,  and 
that  at  a  distance  of  nearly  two  miles  from  the  reservoir,  the 
drills  were  operating  with  as  much  force  as  ever,  and  that 
there  was  no  appreciable  loss  of  motive  power. 

In  the  middle  of  the  tunnel  line  beneath  the  rails,  there  is 
made  at  the  same  time  with  the  excavation,  a  covered  way  or 
drain,  in  which  are  laid  the  pipes  for  gas,  water,  and  com- 
pressed air.  By  this  drain  the  waste  water  runs  off,  and  it 
is  also  intended  to  serve  as  a  means  of  escape  for  the  work- 
men, in  case  of  a  fall  of  rock,  or  other  accident  which  might 
block  up  the  tunnel.  Of  course  the  tunnel  must  be  continu- 
ally supplied  with  fresh  air  along  its  whole  length,  as  well  as 
at  the  heading.  This  is  easily  done  from  the  compressed  air 
tube  in  the  covered  drain. 

The  whole  length  of  the  Mt.  Cenis  tunnel  is  through  rock 
varying  in  hardness,  and  veined  throughout  with  quartz.  In 
many  parts  it  is  liable  to  flake  off,  and  in  some  places  con- 
siderable masses  have  broken  away  during  the  construction. 
The  full  section  of  the  tunnel  is  twenty-six  feet  and  three 
inches  wide,  and  twenty  feet  and  eight  inches  high.  The 
heading  is  carried  forward  about  eleven  and  a  half  feet  wide 
and  nearly  ten  feet  high.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Storrow's 
visit  the  drilling  machines  were  used  only  in  the  heading. 
The  whole  of  the  enlargement  was  done  by  hand  labor  in 
the  ordinary  way.  The  drills  when  brought  up  to  the  work 
drill  eighty  holes  before  any  blasting  is  done.  About  ninety 
workmen  are  employed  at  each  end.  It  required  from  five 
to  seven  hours  to  drill  the  eighty  holes.  Mr.  Storrow 
visited  a  workshop  where  some  machines  were  ready,  and  a 
large  block  of  stone  was  placed  in  front  of  them  for  trial. 
The  air  was  let  on  and  a  drill  put  in  motion.  In  61-2 
minutes  it  drilled  51-2  inches.  The  engineer  stated  that 
they  would  make  better  progress  than  that  at  the  rock  in  the 


23 

tunnel.  The  average  progress  made  by  hand  was  about 
sixty-six  feet  a  month.  That  rate  was  about  doubled  by 
means  of  the  machines  j  but  since  Mr.  Storrow's  visit  these 
machines  have  been  greatly  improved,  and  the  rate  of  pro- 
gress latterly  has  been  about  two  hundred  feet  a  month. 

The  opening  of  the  Mt.  Cenis  Tunnel  was  commenced  in 
October,  1857.  Up  to  July,  1861,  about  2142  feet  had  been 
excavated,  the  average  progress  being  about  sixty-six  feet  a 
month.  The  machines  were  then  introduced,  and  at  the 
present  time,  upwards  of  three  miles  have  been  excavated, 
and  at  the  rate  of  progress  now  being  made  the  tunnel  will 
be  completed  in  four  years.  Mr.  Storrow's  estimate  of  its 
cost  is  $640  per  running  yard, 

We  have  now  placed  before  our  readers  such  facts  in  rela- 
tion to  European  tunnels,  and  more  particularly  in  relation 
to  that  under  the  Alps,  as  will  enable  them  to  judge  for 
themselves  of  the  feasibility  of  completing  the  Hoosac 
Tunnel,  and  of  the  weight  of  the  objections  which  are  urged 
against  it  by  the  opponents  of  the  enterprise,  as  well  as  the 
nature  of  the  obstacles  which  have  been  encountered,  and 
the  means  of  surmounting  them.  We  shall  next  present  a 
brief  history  of  the  work,  the  progress  made,  the  delays 
which  have  occurred,  and  the  causes;  and  the  sources, 
nature,  and  motives  of  the  opposition  which  has  been  made 
to  it.  In  the  course  of  this  history  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  expose  the  gross  misrepresentations  and  deliberate  false- 
hoods which  have,  from  time  to  time,  been  put  in  print  and 
scattered  broadcast  throughout  the  State,  for  the  purpose  of 
sustaining  and  extending  a  great  railroad  monopoly,  already 
too  powerful,  against  the  vital  interests  and  actual  necessi- 
ties of  the  Commonwealth. 

The  first  section  of  the  Tunnel  Line  obtained  its  charter 
in  1842,  under  an  act  incorporating  the  Fitchburg  Railroad 
Company,  in  spite  of  the  strenuous  opposition  from  Boston, 
Springfield,  Pittsfield,  and  the  whole  power  of  the  Western 
Road,  which  a  few  years  before,  had  only  obtained  its  char- 


24 

ter  by  the  aid  of  some  twenty-five  members  of  the  House, 
from  Northern  Massachusetts,  who  held  the  balance  of  power. 
Of  these  twenty-five  gentlemen,  to  whom  the  State  was  thus 
early  indebted,  one  was  Hon.  Alvah  Crocker,  of  Fitchburg, 
whose  name  in  connection  with  the  Fitchburg,  the  Yermont 
and  Massachusetts,  the  Troy  and  Greenfield  roads,  and  with 
the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  has  since  become  "  familiar  as  household 
words."  The  appeal  of  the  late  Judge  Kinnicut,  one  of  the  pio- 
neers of  the  Western  line,  contains  this  passage :  "  Assume  if 
you  please,  that  your  route  is  better  than  the  Southern  or 
Western  one ;  if  you  are  willing  to  identify  the  Commonwealth 
with  such  an  enterprise,  you  establish  a  precedent,  and  the 
Commonwealth,  to  be  just,  to  be  consistent  with  herself,  must 
aid  you  in  like  manner.  Nay,  every  other  section.  She  will 
never  be  partial,  as  you  suppose,  but  fair  to  all.  She  will 
certainly  go  as  far  as  she  safely  can,  to  develop  and  increase 
her  growth."  Such  appeals  could  not  but  prevail  with  fair 
minded  men,  and  these  twenty-five  members,  with  a  spirit  of 
liberality  and  almost  of  self  sacrifice,  which  should  put  to 
shame  the  narrow  minded  and  selfish  policy  of  the  Western 
Railroad  Company  in  regard  to  the  Tunnel  line,  gave  their 
voices  and  votes  in  favor  of  an  enterprise,  the  commence- 
ment of  which  would  otherwise  have  been  deferred  for  years. 
The  result  was  that  by  the  first  of  January,  1843,  the  re- 
ceipts of  money  by  the  Western  Eailroad  Company,  from 
the  stock  and  scrip  of  the  state  amounted  to  $5,565,610.86. 

As  stated  above,  .the  Fitchburg  Railroad  Company  was  au- 
thorized to  build  a  road  from  Boston  to  Fitchburg,  a  distance 
of  fifty  miles,  in  spite  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  man- 
agers and  attorneys  of  the  Western  Line.  The  intelligent 
legislator  of  1866,  who  has  passed  over  the  Fitchburg  Rail- 
road, and  observed  the  numerous  trains  of  passenger  and 
freight  cars  which  daily  follow  each  other  over  its  double 
line  of  track,  can  but  smile  at  the  language  of  Mr  Mills,  a 
senator  from  Hampden,  a  little  more  than  twenty  years  ago 
"Sir,"  said  this  zealous  legislator,  who,  in  his  style  and  logic 


25 

forcibly  remind  us  of  Mr.  Bird,  of  Walpole,  "  a  six  horse 
stage  coach  and  a  few  baggage  wagons  will  draw  all  the 
freight  from  Fitchburg  to  Boston." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  give  details  of  the  history  of  the 
Vermont  and  Massachusetts  Road,  and  the  struggles  of  its 
projectors  against  hostile  legislation,  and  the  intensified  op- 
position of  the  Western  line.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  this 
second  section  of  the  Tunnel  Line,  extending  from  Fitchburg 
to  Greenfield,  was  commenced  and  finished,  in  spite  of  all 
opposition,  without  a  dollar  of  that  aid  which  Mr.  Kinnicut 
said  the  State  would  have  to  furnish  in  order  to  be  just  and 
consistent.  Its  stock,  which  could  be  bought  for  $9  a  share, 
ten  years  ago,  now  commands  upwards  of  $40.  Its  gross 
receipts,  last  year,  were  $390,085.79,  and  its  net  income, 
$91,229.85.  Its  debt  has  been  reduced  from  upwards  of  a 
million  to  one  half  that  sum,  and  this  year  it  has  paid  its 
first  dividend. 

The  Troy  and  Greenfield  Road  was  chartered  in  1848,  the 
same  old  elements  of  opposition  being  combined  against,  and 
fighting  it  at  every  step.  The  managers  of  the  Western 
road  clamorously  declared  that  if  this  competing  line  were 
chartered,  it  would  greatly  diminish  the  security  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, for  its  investment  in  their  road,  and  that  •  if  the 
State  should  be  compelled  to  sell  its  stock  after  the  granting 
of  such  charter,  she  would  lose  a  hundred  and  seventy  thou- 
sand dollars ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  affected  to  deride 
the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  as  a  "  pauper  road,"  and  the 
region  it  traversed  as  a  "  God-forsaken  country ! " 

In  1858,  the  Western  end  of  the  Tunnel  Line,  extending 
from  the  Western  base  of  the  Hoosac  Mountain  to  Troy,  had 
been  completed  through  the  enterprise  of  the  citizens  of  that 
thriving  city  and  those  of  North  Adams.  The  Vermont  and 
Massachusetts  was  finished,  and  only  thirty-seven  miles  of 
rail  were  needed  to  complete  the  direct  connection  of  Boston 
with  the  Great  West.  Then  was  the  time  and  opportunity 
for  the  State  to  have  continued  the  same  liberal  policy  which 
4 


26 

it  had  adopted  toward  the  Western  road,  and  to  have  extended 
her  helping  hand  to  the  struggling  corporation,  which  had 
undertaken  the  noble  enterprise  of  piercing  the  barrier  which 
was  interposed  between  them  and  their  "  promised  land." 
But  their  appeals  for  aid  were  met  with  sneers  and  derision  ; 
the  work  was  bitterly  opposed  at  every  stage  of  its  progress  j 
the  arts  of  demagogues,  the  cunning  of  lawyers,  the  fears  of 
the  timid,  the  credulity. of  the  ignorant,  and  every  conceiv- 
able influence  which  the  well-filled  treasury  of  the  Western 
road  could  purchase  were  enlisted  and  combined  against  it. 
But,  at  last,  perseverance  and  a  good  cause  prevailed,  and  in 
1854,  the  Legislature  authorized  a  loan  of  the  State  credit 
to  the  amount  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  to  the  Troy  and 
Greenfield  Railroad  Company,  "  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
said  company  to  construct  a  tunnel  and  railroad  under  and 
through  the  Hoosac  Mountain,  in  some  place  between  the 
'  Great  Bend,'  in  Deerfield  river,  and  the  town  of  Florida, 
at  the  base  of  the  Hoosac  Mountain  on  the  East,  and  the 
base  of  the  Western  side  of  the  mountain,  near  the  East  end 
of  the  village  of  North  Adams,  on  the  West."  But  this  loan 
was  modified  and  restricted  by  such  conditions,  artfully  in- 
troduced by  the  foes  of  the  enterprise,  that  the  work  still 
languished,  and  its  friends  almost  despaired  even  of  ultimate 
success.  The  enabling  act  of  1857,  would  have  greatly 
relieved  them,  but  it  was  vetoed  by  Gov.  Gardner.  At  the 
beginning  of  1860,  only  $230,000  of  the  two  millions  had 
been  advanced. 

In  the  Legislature  of  that  year,  the  original  act  was  modi- 
fied so  that  the  balance  of  the  loan  might  be  divided  between 
the  road  from  Greenfield  and  the  Tunnel,  for  the  construction 
of  both  parts  of  the  work  simultaneously.  Provision  was 
at  the  same  time  made  for  the  appointment,  annually,  by  the 
Governor,  of  a  state  engineer,  to  examine  the  work,  make 
monthly  estimates,  and  impose  such  requirements  upon  the 
company  and  contractors  as  he  and  the  Governor  and  Coun- 
cil might  deem  expedient.  In  the  summer  of  1860,  Colonel 


27 

E  zra  Lincoln  of  Boston,  was  appointed  State  engineer,  and 
resigning  in  the  following  autumn,  on  account  of  illness,  was 
succeeded  by  C.  L.  Stevenson,  Esq. 

In  the  meantime  the  company  had  contracted  with  Messrs. 
Haupt  and  Cartwright  to  construct  the  road  and  tunnel.  The 
first  named  gentleman  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  ex- 
perienced engineers  in  the  country.  Under  the  administra- 
tion of  the  State  engineers,  Messrs  Lincoln  and  Stevenson,  the 
existing  location  was  approved,  and  certain  prices  were  estab- 
lished, upon  the  basis  of  which  contracts  were  made  for  labor 
and  material,  and  rapid  progress  was  made  with  the  work. 
Upon  the  accession  of  Governor  Andrew  in  1851,  Mr.  Ste- 
venson was  summarily  removed,  and  Mr.  William  S.  Whitwell 
appointed  in  his  place.  This  gentleman  at  once  proceeded 
to  change  .the  entire  basis  of  work  as  established  by  his  pre- 
decessors, reduced  the  prices  under  which  extensive  contracts 
had  already  been  made,  and  cut  down  the  estimates,  so  as  to 
compel  an  entire  suspension  of  the  work.  More  than  a  thou- 
sand laborers  and  mechanics  were  discharged.  Mr.  Haupt 
states  that  at  the  time  of  this  suspension,  "  the  graduation  of 
the  whole  line  could  have  been  completed  in  a  few  weeks. 
The  iron  and  nearly  all  the  ties  and  bridge  material  had  been 
delivered  j  but  little  remained  to  be  done  except  finishing  the 
bridge  and  laying  the  track." 

After  a  warm  and  protracted  discussion  of  the  subject  in 
the  Legislature  of  1862,  an  act  was  passed,  providing  that  the 
State  should  take  possession  of  the  road,  tunnel,  and  all  the 
property  of  the  Troy  and  Greenfield  Company.  A  commis- 
ion  was  also  authorized  to  examine  the  work,  ascertain  the 
feasibility  of  completing  it,  and  report  to  the  next  Legislature. 
The  commissioners  appointed  under  this  act,  by  Governor 
Andrew,  were  Messrs.  J.  W.  Brooks  and  Alexander  Holmes, 
of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  S.  M.  Felton,  of  Pennsylvania,  two 
of  them  being  eminent  civil  engineers,  and  all  three  gentlemen 
of  large  experience  in  railroad  affairs.  They  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  their  commission  at  once,  and  having  dispatched 


28 

Mr.  Storrow  to  Europe  to  examine  the  tunnels  there,  proceed- 
ed to  take  possession  of  the  road  and  property  of  the  Com- 
pany, which  was  surrendered  to  them  in  September  of  the 
same  year. 

The  elaborate  and  exhaustive  report  of  the  Commissioners 
was  submitted  to  the  Legislature  in  the  latter  part  of  Febru- 
ary, 1863.  The  closing  paragraph  expresses  their  "opinion 
that  the  work  should  be  undertaken  by  the  Commonwealth,  and 
completed  as.  early  as  it  can  be,  with  due  regard  to  economy.'' 
The  result  of  another  discussion  in  the  Legislature  was  the 
adoption  of  the  recommendation  of  the  Commissioners,  and 
the  responsibility  of  completing  the  tunnel  and  road  was 
assumed  by  the  State,  in  April  of  1863,  operations  having 
been  suspended  nearly  three  years. 

Since  that  time,  the  work  has  been  conducted  by  the  Com- 
missioners, under  the  immediate  superintendence  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Doane,  chief  engineer,  in  such  manner  and  with  such 
progress  as  to  give  very  general  satisfaction  to  the  friends  of 
the  enterprise,  and  promise  its  completion  within  a  reasonable 
time.  A  very  considerable  portion  of  the  labor  and  expend- 
itures, since  the  operations  were  resumed,  have  been  applied 
to  preparing  buildings  and  machinery,  to  the  construction 
of  a  dam  across  the  Deerfield  river,  in  order  to  secure  power 
to  operate  the  tunneling  apparatus,  and  to  an  enlargement  and 
an  alteration  of  the  grade  of  the  Eastern  end  of  the  tunnel, 
which  had  been  excavated  by  Haupt  and  Cartwright. 

But  before  proceeding  to  consider  the  present  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  Tunnel,  it  is  necessary  to  revert  to  the  legis- 
lation of  1862  and  1863,  in  order  to  note  the  tactics  of  its 
enemies,  who  had  by  no  means  been  idle,  nor  had  in  any  de- 
gree relaxed  their  opposition.  In  fact,  it  was  through  this 
opposition  that  the  act  of  1862  was  effected,  the  bill  being  a 
substitute  for  that  reported  by  the  committee,  and  generally 
regarded  as  a  compromise  between  the  friends  and  foes  of 
the  enterprise,  though  the  latter  believed  they  had,  at  last 
achieved  a  triumph,  and  exultingly  whispered  that  the  great 


29 

Hoosac  Tunnel  scheme  had  received  its  death  blow.  They 
certainly  did  play  their  game  with  boldness  and  skill.  While 
the  contractors,  Messrs.  Haupt  &  Co.,  had  actually  applied  all 
their  private  means,  to  the  extent  of  more  than  $200,000,  to 
carry  on  the  work,  it  was  asserted  that  they  were  swindling 
the  State  and  pocketing  its  funds  to  the  tune  of  $300,000. 
They  proclaimed  that  they  were  in  favor  of  the  Tunnel,  and  only 
desired  to  take  the  work  from  the  hands  of  swindling  contract- 
ors and  the  control  of  a  bankrupt  and  irresponsible  corporation, 
in  order  that  it  might  be  assumed  and  prosecuted  by  the  Com- 
monwealth ;  but  they  were  secretly  confident,  and  not  without 
reason,  that  a  board  of  commissioners  would  be  appointed 
who  would  report  against  the  prosecution  of  the  work  by  the 
State.  Of  the  three  gentlemen  appointed,  not  one  had  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  in  favor  of  the  enterprise,  and  Mr.  Brooks, 
the  president,  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  it.  Both  of  the 
two  resident  members  were  from  localities  where  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  was  against  the  Tunnel.  .  But  this  adroitness  of 
the  opposition  was  baffled,  and  its  confident  hope  disappoint- 
ed by  the  integrity  and  fairness  of  Mr.  Brooks  and  his  asso- 
ciates. The  latter  had  no  prejudices  to  conquer,  and  Mr. 
Brooks  had  not  applied  himself  many  weeks  to  the  duties  of 
his  commission,  before  he  was  convinced  of  the  feasibility  of 
the  work,  and  satisfied  that  the  State  ought  to  assume  and 
complete  it.  When  their  report  was  made  to  the  Legislature 
in  1863,  the  old  opposition  manifested  itself  with  more  inten- 
sity than  ever,  and  the  same  honest  gentlemen,  who,  the  year 
before,  were  so  friendly  to  the  enterprise,  and  only  wanted  to 
transfer  it  from  the  hands  of  rapacious  contractors  and  a 
bankrupt  corporation,  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  Common- 
wealth, threw  off  their  masks,  resorted  to  their  old  tricks  and 
arts,  and  renewed  their  old  clamor,  against  the  "  Tunnel  swin- 
dle ;"  yet,  vainly,  as  the  result  proved. 

The  name  of  Mr.  F.  W.  Bird,  of  Walpole,  has  been  once 
or  twice  mentioned  in  this  article,  and  not  improperly,  since 
he  has  gained  that  equivocal  notoriety  in  connection  with 
the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  which  attaches  to  the  enemies  of  all 


30 

great  and  noble  undertakings.  This  gentleman  has  informed 
the  public,  that  in  1847  and  1848,  when  he  was  in  the  Legis- 
lature, he  "  voted  for  everything  that  the  friends  of  the  Tun- 
nel asked  for."  This  action  cannot  have  greatly  embarrassed 
Mr.  Bird  during  his  subsequent  career,  since  the  only  thing 
asked  for  by  the  friends  of  the  Tunnel,  during  those  two 
years,  was  the  charter,  granted  in  1848.  Mr.  Bird  further 
informs  the  public,  that  "in  1862,  we  were  overruled  by  the 
committee,  but  we  defeated  them  before  the  Legislature.  In 
1 863,  we  were  defeated,  and  the  Legislature  sanctioned  the 
resumption  of  the  work."  Mr.  Bird  also  boasts  that,  while 
a  member  of  the  Executive  Council,  he  "  did  resist  the 
assumption  by  the  chairman  of  the  commission,  of  irrespon- 
sible control  over  the  work,  and  did  something  to  prevent 
the  building  of  the  road  from  Greenfield  to  the  mountain." 

In  1862,  Hon.  W.  D.  Swan  represented  the  opposition  to 
the  Tunnel  in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Bird,  in  a  communication  to 
the  Boston  Journal  of  Nov.  3,  1862,  says: — 

"  The  Tunnel  fight  was  organized  and  directed  by  three 
members  of  the  Third  House. 

The  Tunnel  matter  came  before  the  Senate  late  in  the 
session,  when  many  important  questions  demanded  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Senate  and  rendered  it  very  difficult  for  them  to 
make  personal  investigations. 

As  to  Mr.  Swan,  he  very  frankly  declared  that  the  whole 
subject  was  so  new  to  him  that  he  must  rely  upon  us  for  his 
materials. 

His  published  speeches  upon  the  Tunnel,  upon  which  his 
fame  as  a  practical  legislator  is  based  by  his  friends,  were 
written  substantially  by  one  of  us  beforehand,  and  afterward 
revised  by  all  of  us  for  the  press. 

We  furnished  every  fact,  made  every  calculation,  prepared 
every  table  and  arranged  every  point  and  every  argument  logi- 
cally and  rhetorically." 

One  of  the  arguments  which  Mr.  Bird  confesses  he  and 
his  associates  "  arranged,"  is  expressed  in  the  following  ex- 
tract from  Mr.  Swan's  speech : — 

"  I  am  aware,  sir,  that  it  may  be  said :  '  You  are  going  to 
stop  a  great  enterprise.'  No  I  am  not.  I  have  no  such 


31 

intention.  I  am  in  favor  of-  the  Hoosac  Tunnel.  If  Massa- 
chusetts has  granted  her  aid  for  the  accomplishment  of  any 
great  purpose,  I  am  for  going  through  with  it.  I  am  for 
going  through  with  the  Tunnel ;  but  I  am  for  going  through 
with  it  under  standingly;  and  if  Massachusetts  is  to  do  the 
work,  let  us  know  that  we  are  to  obtain  something  like  an 
equivalent  for  our  expenditure. 

We  say,  then,  to  the  corporation,  we  will  send  intelligent 
commissioners  to  examine  the  road  and  tunnel,  and  if  the 
report  to  us,  or  our  successors,  next  year,  is  favorable  to 
this  great  enterprise,  we  will  go  on  with  it ;  we  will  bore  a 
a  hole  through  the  mountain,  we  will  arch  it,  lay  the  track, 
and  give  you  ten  years  in  which  to  redeem  the  property." 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  quote  further  from  M  r.  Bird 
himself;  he  has  been  well  known  for  years  as  an  agent  of 
the  Western  Railroad  Company,  and  the  leader  of  the  com- 
bined elements  of  opposition  to  the  Tunnel.  He  is  a  man 
of  ability,  bold,  and  adroit  in  his  management,  but  entirely 
unscrupulous  in  the  choice  of  means  to  effect  his  objects. 
As  a  lobby  member,  as  newspaper  correspondent,  as  pamph- 
leteer, as  councillor,  and  in  the  numerous  other  characters 
which  his  Protean  genius  has  enabled  him  to  assume,  he  has, 
by  fair  means  and  foul,  diligently  adhered  to  his  boastful 
promise  that  he  "  should  not  desist  from  opposition  till  the 
work  is  stopped ;  "  and  he  has  lately  reiterated  his  purpose 
of  keeping  that  pledge,  "  with  the  help  of  God."  Those  who 
know  Mr.  Bird  well,  entertain  no  doubt  that  he  will  continue 
to  do  his  best  to  stop  the  work,  whether  with  or  without  the 
Divine  assistance,  and  that  he  will  literally  fulfill  his  promise, 
.since  the  work  will,  undoubtedly,  be  "  stopped  "  when  it  is 
finished. 

One  other  gentleman  has  been  associated  with  Mr.  Bird, 
as  a  leader  of  the  opposition  to  the  Tunnel  enterprise,  who, 
perhaps,  deserves  a  passing  notice  in  this  article,  Mr.  D.  JL 
Harris,  President  of  the  Connecticut  River  Eailroad.  He 
has  less  ability  than  Mr.  Bird,  but  much  more  practical 
knowledge  of  railroad  engineering  and  management.  It  has 
apparently  been  a  part  of  the  duty  assigned  him,  to  furnish 


32 

Mr.  Bird  with  the  texts  for  his  pamphlets  and  newspaper 
articles,  and  to  supply  such  information,  from  time  to  time,  as 
that  gentleman's  inexperience  and  ignorance  required.  He 
has  also  emulated  the  example  of  his  associate  by  contribut- 
ing to  the  anti-tunnel  literature  of  the  newspapers.  While  a 
member  of  the  House,  a  few  years  since,  he  had  the  bad 
taste,  in  the  course  of  discussion,  to  quote  from  one  of  his 
own  anonymous  articles.  Upon  being  accused  of  being  the 
author  of  his  quotation,  he  roundly  denied  the  charge,  but 
was  convicted  by  the  production  of  his  own  manuscript. 
His  seat  was  vacant  during  the  remainder  of  that  session. 
Whether  this  desertion  of  his  post  was  occasioned  by  a  con- 
viction in  the  minds  of  anti-tunnel  men  and  the  Western 
Railroad  managers  that  the  exposure  had  impaired  the 
influence  of  their  agent,  or  whether  he  was  impelled  to 
retire  by  the  stings  of  that  remorse  which  a  certain  class  of 
men  experience  only  when  they  have  been  detected  in  a  false- 
hood, the  writer  of  this  paper  is  unable  to  determine. 

The  Boston  Advertiser  of  October  5,  1865,  contains  an 
article  over  Mr.  Bird's  signature,  which  was  soon  after  pub- 
lished in  the  form  of  a  pamphlet,  and  profusely  distributed 
throughout  the  State,  having  for  a  title,  "  The  Hoosac  Tun- 
nell :  its  Condition  and  Prospects."  It  appears,  that  a  few 
weeks  previous,  Mr.  Bird  and  Mr.  Harris  visited  the  Tunnel 
locality,  and  this  pamphlet  purports  to  be  the  result  of  Mr. 
Bird's  "  observations."  It  has  been  extensively  read,  and 
has,  doubtless,  inspired  the  minds  of  many  timid  and  igno- 
rant persons,  with  honest  doubts  of  the  practicability  or 
expediency  of  ever  completing  the  Tunnel.  It  is  considered 
11  smart "  by  those  who  mistake  denunciation  and  abuse  for 
wit,  and  baseless  assumption  for  truth.  To  those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  history  of  the  Tunnel,  and  who  understand 
its  present  condition,  it  is  more  remarkable  for  misrepresen- 
tation and  disingenuousness,  than  even  any  previous  effort  of 
its  author. 


33 

He.  introduces  his  subject  by  stating  that  the  commission- 
ers, te  since  they  commenced  operations,  have  had  unlimited 
and  irresponsible  power,  and  that,  for  all  failures  and  blun- 
ders, they,  and  they  alone,  are  responsible ; "  yet,  within  a 
month  from  the  penning  of  this  assertion,  Mr.  Bird  boasted 
that  he  did  something,  while  a  member  of  the  Council,  to 
prevent  the  building  of  the  road  from  Greenfield  to  the 
mountain. 

The  obstacles  encountered  at  the  West  end  of  the  Tunnel, 
which  had  been  foreseen  and  understood  from  the  beginning, 
by  the  friends  of  the  enterprise,  appear  to  have  first  engaged 
the  observation  of  our  inspector,  and  are  represented  as  a 
startling  and  recent  discovery.  The  well  known  effect  of 
water  upon  the  soft  material  in  this  locality  is  described  as 
"  rock  demoralized  "  into  "  porridge,"  and  this  "  porridge  "  is 
represented  as  a  difficulty  of  such  serious  nature  that  "  the 
managers  are  at  their  wits'  ends." 

Mr.  James  Laurie,  an  eminent  civil  engineer,  employed  by 
the  commissioners  to  make  a  survey,  in  his  able  report  in 
January  of  1863,  says  uthe  portions  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel 
embraced  between  the  Western  entrance  and  the  present 
shaft,  a  distance  of  3008  feet,  will,  from  all  indications,  be 
the  most  troublesome  and  expensive.  The  material  consists 
of  gravel,  clay,  sand,  detached  beds  of  quartzose  sandstone, 
some  of  which  is  partly  decomposed,  and  limestone.  The 
whole  formation  is  full  of  springs.  However  bad  the  material 
may  prove,  this  part,  under  proper  management,  can  be  com- 
pleted long  before  the  rest  of  the  Tunnel."  Mr.  Bird  says, 
"  Common  men,  and  some  uncommon  men,  too,  look  upon 
these  difficulties  as  insuperable."  Those  who  can,  for  a 
moment,  weigh  the  opinion  of  the  accomplished  and  expe- 
rienced engineer,  Mr.  Laurie,  with  that  of  Mr.  F.  W.  Bird, 
of  Walpole,  may  relieve  their  doubts  by  referring  to  Mr. 
Storrow's  report  on  the  European  tunnels,  in  a  very  large 
proportion  of  which  the  most  formidable  kind  of  "  porridge  " 
was  encountered  and  subdued.  * 

5 

*  . 


34 

Mr.  Bird  observed  the  Western  shaft.  The  work  at  the 
Western  face  of  this  shaft  was  suspended  on  account  of 
imminent  danger  of  "porridge/7  and  our  observer's  most 
important  criticism  here,  is  that  they  were,  at  the  time  of  his 
visit,  advancing  on  the  Eastern  face  of  the  shaft,  at  the  rate 
of  only  "  thirteen  feet  weekly,"  that  is  fifty-two  feet  per  month. 
Mr.  Storrow  says  the  average  progress  in  the  European  tun- 
nels was  about  thirty  feet  per  month. 

The  Central  shaft  was  visited,  and  Mr.  Bird  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  observed  anything  which  demanded  an  expression 
of  his  disapproval.  The  work  was  progressing  at  the  rate 
of  twenty-two  feet  a  month,  and  the  pumps  gave  a  gallon  and 
a  half  of  water  per  minute.  In  constructing  the  Kilsey 
Tunnel,  in  England,  Mr.  Storrow  says  that  during  a  consid- 
erable portion  of  nine  months,  the  water  pumped  out  was 
two  thousand  gallons  a  minute. 

Mr.  Bird's  report  of  progress  at  the  East  end  was  certainly 
very  encouraging  —  the  heading  having  been  advanced  suc- 
cessfully during  the  two  months  preceding  his  visit,  at  the 
rate  of  sixty-five  feet  per  month,  and  the  work  was  being 
pushed  with  vigor  and  activity. 

The  dam  across  the  Deerfield  next  claimed  the  observation 
of  the  inspector,  who  appears  to  have  regarded  it  with  much 
surprise,  both  on  account  of  its  cost  and  because  it  was 
thrown  across  a  fitful  mountain  torrent,  so  feeble  at  the  time 
of  Mr.  Bird's  visit,  that  it  was  only  allowed  to  run  by  night, 
for  the  reason,  as  he  "  guessed,"  that  "  if  it  was  allowed  to  run 
by  day,  under  the  hot  sun,  it  would  all  evaporate  before  it 
reached  Shelburne  Falls  !  "  This  guess  is  associated  in  the 
same  paragraph  with  an  assertion  that  "  there  was  not  then 
in  the  river,  and  had  not  been  for  some  weeks,  and  has  not 
been  since,  (unless  they  have  had  heavy  rains,)  water  enough 
to  give  under  a  thirty  feet  head,  twenty,  or  even  a  ten-horse 
power,,  for  twenty-four  hours  a  day."  It  is  as  well  established 
a  fact  that  the  Deerfield  river  was  never  known  to  be  so  low 
as  at  one  time  during  last  year,  as  it  is  that  wells  all  over 


35 

the  State  were  dry  last  autumn,  which  were  never  dry  before. 
Yet,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Bird's  visit,  when  the  river  was  low- 
est, Mr.  Doane,  the  chief  engineer,  states  that  the  water  was 
running  at  the  rate  of  "  thirty-four  cubic  feet  per  second. 
On  a  head  of  thirty  feet  this  gives,  theoretically,  one  hun- 
dred and  sixteen,  and,  practically,  eighty-seven  horse  power." 
The  intelligent  reader  will  not  be  at  much  loss  to  decide 
whether  he  will  rely  upon  the  guesses,  observations  and  loose 
assertions  of  Mr.  Bird,  or  the  record  and  word  of  the  care- 
ful and  skillful  engineer.  Mr.  Bird  says,  "  it  is  discreditable 
that  the  precise  quantity  of  water  has  not,  so  far  as  we 
know,  been  ascertained  by  actual  measurement."  Such  mear 
surement  had  been  made,  and  Mr.  Bird  might  have  known  it 
if  he  had  taken  pains  to  inquire  of  Mr.  Doane  or  Mr.  Hill. 

The  testimony  of  Messrs.  Lamson  &  Goodnow,  of  Shel- 
burne  Falls,  as  to  the  power  and  reliability  of  the  Deerfield 
river,  is  that  "  this  is  the  first  season  we  have  been  at  all 
troubled  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  water,  but  not  as  Mr. 
Bird  stated  it.  We  have  not  been  compelled  to  stop  our 
mills  except  one  half  day,  and  we  employ  four  hundred  men 
on  cutlery." 

The  same  gentlemen  (Messrs.  Lamson  &  Goodnow)  state 
that  the  Deerfield  and  North  rivers  furnish  water  enough,  at 
Shelburne  Falls,  for  one  thousand  horse  power.  The  North 
river  is  a  small  stream,  and  deducting  its  contribution  to- 
gether with  that  of  the  brooks  which  find  their  way  into  the 
Deerfield  between  Shelburne  Falls  and  the  mountain,  at  the 
high  estimate  of  two  hundred  horse  power,  and  there  remains 
to  the  Deerfield  alone  a  force  of  eight  hundred  horse  power, 
which  is  the  estimate  made  by  the  commissioners.  The  mea- 
surements made  by  Mr.  Doane  and  his  assistants  confirm  their 
^accuracy.  Yet  Mr.  Bird -who  boasts  of  "an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance of  over  thirty  years  with  water  power,"  asserts 
that  for  such  a  privilege,  "  ten  thousand  dollars  woulfj  be  an 
extravagant  price  ! "  Would  he  sell  even  the  puddle  which 
works  his  paper  mill  at  Walpole,  and  which,  we  presume,  has 


36 

afforded  all  his  knowledge  of  water  power,  for  half  that 
amount  ? 

The  writer  of  this  article  has  not  enjoyed  a  an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance of  over  thirty  years  with  water  power/'  but  he  has 
resided  exactly  -the  same  length  of  time  as  Gov.  Gardner  said 
he  had  been  a  temperance  man,  in  the  manufacturing  town  of 
Fitchburg,  and  during  that  time  has  learned  something  about 
its  thirty-four  water  privileges  2^^.  five  hundred  and  eighty-two 
feet  head  of  water  which  they  command,  on  the  little  Nashua 
and  its  tributaries.  His  knowledge  of  this  water  power  en- 
ables him  to  exhibit  the  gross  absurdity  of  Mr.  Bird's  efforts 
to  dry  up  the  Deerfield.  One  of  these  tributaries,  which  is 
less  than  eight  miles  long,  affords  a  privilege  with  a  head  of 
twenty-one  feet,  of  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  horse 
power.  The  reader  can  form  his  own  conclusions,  by  com- 
paring this  brook  with  that  lt  fitful  mountain  torrent,"  the 
Deerfield  river,  which  has  its  sources  in  the  town  of  Stnitton, 
Yt.,  flows  southward  to  the  foot  of  the  Hoosac  Mountain,  then 
turning  eastward,  finds  its  way  into  the  Connecticut,  near 
Greenfield,  traversing  in  its  course,  a  distance  of  more  than 
sixty  miles.  The  length-  of  the  "  fitful  torrent "  above  the 
Hoosac  dam,  is  about  forty  miles,  and  in  that  part  of  its 
course  it  is  swelled  by  the  contributions  of  numerous  tributa- 
ries, several  of  which  are  respectively  from  twelve  to  eighteen 
miles  long.  A  shrewd  Yankee,  who  is  not  a  civil  engineer, 
and  has  not  even  had  the  experience  of  running  a  small  pa- 
per mill,  might  "  guess  "  that  such  a  stream  would  furnish, 
with  a  head  of  thirty  feet,  as  much  as  an  eight  hundred  horse 
power. 

But  it  is  not  eight  hundred  horse  power,  nor  four  hundred 
that  is  required  to  operate  the  drilling  machinery  and  ventil- 
ate the  tunnel ;  for  two  hundred  and  eight  horse  power  is  all 
that  has  ever  been  used  or  needed  at  Mt.  Cenis.  This  leaves 
a  pretty^wide  margin  for  drouths,  evaporation,  and  other  con- 
tingencies. 


37 

In  his  observations  upon  the  power  required,  Mr.  Bird  be- 
comes severe  and  sarcastic.  He  assails  the  opinion  of  the 
commissioners  that  "  the  loss  of  power  by  carrying  the*  com- 
pressed air  through  five  miles  of  pipe  will  be  quite  insignifi- 
cant/' and  after  asserting  that  there  are  no  data  by  which 
to  test  the  correctness  of  this  opinion,  and  claiming  "  some  ex- 
perience in  such  matters,"  prefers  that  such  an  "experiment" '. 
should  be  tried  with  somebody's  money  besides  his  own.  It 
is  gratifying  to  learn  from  Mr.  Bird,  himself,  that  he  he  has 
had  experience  in  the  matter  of  compressed  air  as  a  motive 
power,  and  that  a  "  cussed  furriner,"  as  he  elegantly  phrases  it 
is  not  to  be  allowed  to  bear  off  the  pahn  of  this  great  discovery 
uncontested.  Doubtless  M.  Sommeiller  will  yield  to  the  su- 
perior science  and  sagacity  of  Mr.  Bird ;  but  our  countryman 
should  lose  no  time  in  informing  his  fellow  citizens  of  his  in- 
vestigations, experiments  and  success  in  arriving  at  the 
conclusion  that  compressed  air  cannot  "  be  carried  through 
five  miles  of  pipe  without  a  very  serious  loss  of  power  through 
friction,  leakage,  &c."  But,  unfortunately  for  this  view  of  the 
case,  there  are  data  establishing  the  fact  that  compressed  air 
has  been  conveyed  through  more  than  two  miles  of  pipe  at 
Mt.  Cenis,  and  then  operated  the  drills  without  any  appreci- 
able loss  of  power.  If  there  is  no  loss  in  two  miles,  how  can 
there  be  in  five  ?  It  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  but  an  es- 
tablished scientific  fact. 

The  size  of  the  present  excavation  next  engages  the  atten- 
tion of  our  observer,  and  he  calls  the  commissioners  to  account 
because  they  have  not  followed  their  own  recommendation  to 
excavate  the  Tunnel  to  its  full  dimensions  as  the  work  pro- 
ceeds. Since  their  recommendation  was  made  in  the  winter 
of  1863,  the  commissioners  have  had  much  experience,  and 
the  price  of  labor  has  doubled.  Only  a  small  number  of  men 
can  work  on  a  heading,  but  when  a  heading  has  been  advanced 
a  large  number  of  workmen  can  follow  rapidly  in  enlarging 
the  excavation,  and  will  soon  overtake  those  engaged  .on  the 
heading.  At  Mt.  Cenis,  the  pneumatic  drills  are  only  used 


38 

on  the  heading,  and  the  enlargement  is  done  by  numerous  la- 
borers with  hand  drills.  It  is  apparent  that  the  commission- 
ers have  been  actuated  solely  by  motives  of  economy  in  pros- 
ecuting the  heading  alone,  at  the  present  high  rates  of  labor. 
The  work  of  enlargement  is  comparatively  easy  and  rapid, 
and  might  well  await  a  decline  in  the  cost  of  labor,Uhough  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  importance  of  completing  this  no- 
ble work,  ought  to  outweigh  the  consideration  of  any  possible 
cost. 

On  the  subject  of  pneumatic  drills,  Mr.  Bird  is  emphatic. 
He  says,  "  no.  intelligent  man  puts  the  slightest  confidence  in 
the  successful  working  of  any  borer,  or  drill,  in  the  rock  of 
the  Hoosac  Mountain,  unless^  operated  by  hand.  In  a  strictly 
homogeneous  rock,  machine  drills  might  work,  but  in  a  rock 
like  the  Hoosac,  where  the  drills,  working  generally  in  a  com- 
paratively soft  material,  are  liable  at  any  moment  to  strike 
veins  of  quartz,  and  where  a  part  of  the  hole  will  be  in  the 
slate  and  the  rest  in  quartz,  no  machine  drill  has  yet  been 
found  to  stand."  This  reckless  and  false  assertion  is  made 
in  utter  defiance  of  Mr.  Storrow's  report  and  all  other  au- 
thorities upon  the  Alps  Tunnel,  which  has  now  been  excavat- 
ed nearly  four  miles  with  machine  drills  on  the  heading.  Mr. 
Storrow  says  that  masonry  is  used  because  the  rock  "  is  not 
homogeneous  in  character.  I  stood  at  the  front  of  the  ma- 
chines, watching  them  for  three  quarters  of  an  hour.  One 
drill  was  driving  directly  into  hard  quartz,  advancing  very 
slowly,  and  making  the  sparks  fly  at  every  stroke.  Others 
working  in  softer  spots,  were  cutting  rapidly." 

Mr.  Bird  has  much  to  learn  about  pneumatic  drills,  and, 
without  going  beyond  the  borders  of  Massachusetts,  he  can 
see  a  drill  operate  by  compressed  air,  so  indifferent  as  to  the 
character  of  the  rock  it  works  upon,  that  it  will  penetrate 
the  hardest  granite  and  the  composite  rock  of  the  Hoosac 
with  the  same  facility,  and  at  a  rate  which  would  astonish 
even  M.  Sommeiller. 


39 

The  figures  upon  which  Bird  bases  a  "  calculation  "  as  to 
the  time  of  completing  the  Tunnel,  are  as  far  from  being 
correct  as  his  general  statements  are  from  the  truth.  One 
example  is  enough  to  illustrate,  and  by  this  the  reader  may 
fairly  judge  what  the  "  calculation  "  is  worth.  He  says  the 
total  length  of  the  Tunnel  is  24,586  feet,  when  the  fact  is 
that  it  is  25,586  feet.  This  is  no  mistake  of  the  printer,  for 
the  figures  repeatedly  occur  in  the  pamphlet,  and  always  the 
same ;  and  it  is  with  this  gross  blunder  that  the  "  calculation  " 
sets  out.  The  truth  is  that  any  careful  reader  of  this  article, 
is  a  Better  judge  of  the  whole  subject  than  Mr.  Bird,  because 
he  will  have  reliable  dates,  facts  and  figures,  by  the  aid  of 
which  he  can  make  a  calculation  for  himself,  or'  form  an 
opinion  as  to  the  time  within  which  the  work  can  be  done, 
which  will  be  quite  as  likely  to  be  correct  as  any,  "  I  under- 
take to  say,"  of  the  oracular  Bird. 

On  the  1st  of  December,  1865,  the  penetration  at  the 
East  end  was  2904  feet  j  at  the  East  heading  of  Western 
shaft,  414  feet;  West  heading  of  same  shaft,  280  feet;  at 
West  end  heading,  756  —  in  the  whole,  4354  feet.  The  cen- 
tral shaft  had  been  sunk  two  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  The 
average  progress  on  this  shaft  during  the  months  of  August, 
September,  October  and  November  was  18  3-4  feet  per 
month.  Assuming  this  for  the  average  in  December,  Jan- 
uary and  February  the  shaft  was  275  feet  deep,  on  the  1st  of 
March,  the  whole  depth  to  grade  being  1037  feet.  The 
average  progress  on  the  East  face  of  Western  shaft  was  sixty- 
three  feet  per  month.  Allowing  that  average  for  December, 
January  and  February,  and  the  penetration  on  this  face  is 
now  more  than  600  feet.  The  average  on  East  end  was 
forty-four  feet.  Add  this  average  for  the  last  three  months, 
and  the  penetration  at  this  end  is  now  3036  feet,  and  the 
total  penetration  4675  feet,  with  575  feet  of  shaft  sunk. 

Mr.  Laurie  states  in  his  report  that  in  the  ten  tunnels 
which  he  names,  in  this  country  and  Europe,  the  average 
progress  made  on  each  face  from  a  shaft  was  thirty-eight  feet, 


40 

and  on  the  end  faces  fifty-four  feet  per  month.  Let  the  intelli- 
gent man  who  forms  opinions  and  conclusions  for  himself, 
compare  the  statistics  which  have  been  given  in  the  course  of 
this  writing  in  relation  to  tunneling  in  Europe  and  in  this 
country,  and  then,  taking  into  consideration  the  inadequate 
means  which  have,  until  recently,  been  applied  to  the  Hoosac 
enterprise,  and  surveying  the  progress  which  has  been  made 
whenever  the  work  was  prosecuted  with  vigor,  let  him  judge 
how  soon,  and  at  what  cost,  the  Tunnel  may  be  completed, 
even  without  the  aid  of  machine  drills. 

The  concluding  pages  of  the  pamphlet  contain  a  general 
charge  against  the  commissioners,  or  rather  Mr.  Brooks,  the 
chairman,  of  mismanagement.  The  only  "  illustrations  "  of 
this  charge  are,  first,  that  Mr.  Brooks  declined  to  sell  the 
3,000  tons  of  railroad  iron  which  had  been  purchased,  and 
distributed  along  the  graded  track  from  Greenfield  to  the 
mountain,  and  "  other  saleable  property  j  "  second,  that  he  has 
"  disregarding  the  advice  of  others,  whose  judgment  was  en- 
titled to  weight,  put  his  own  constructions  upon  the  acts  of 
the  Legislature  relating  to  the  powers  and  duties  of  the 
commissioners,  in  opposition  to  the  construction  and  in  de- 
fiance of  the  orders  of  the  Executive  Council ;  "  third,  he 
has  seriously  contemplated  "  the  amazing  folly  of  building 
the  railroad  from  Greenfield  to  the  mountain ! " 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  from  more  reliable  authority  than 
the  intimation  of  Mr.  Bird,  that  Mr.  Brooks  did  justify  the 
opinion  which  is  generally  entertained,  of  his  good  sense  and 
judgment,  by  contemplating  that  "amazing  folly,"  and  the 
only  evidence  of  serious  mismanagement  on  his  part,  which 
Mr.  Bird  can  produce,  is  that  he  did  not,  at  once  execute  his 
purpose,  lay  the  rails  and  put  the  road  in  operation  from 
Greenfield  to  the  mountain.  The  additional  facilities  which 
the  completion  of  this  road  would  have  afforded  for  expe- 
diting the  work,  and  reducing  its  cost,  are  too  obvious  to  be 
enumerated.  The  extent  and  value  of  the  resources  and 
material  of  the  region  through  which  the  road  passes,  and 


41 

the  importance  of  their  speedy  development,  have  already 
been  shown.  The  distance  from  Greenfield  to  the  mountain 
is  about  thirty  miles,  by  a  very  uneven  and  hilly  road ;  and 
yet,  in  1861,  the  amount  of  freight  transported  over  it,  was 
12,350  tons,  and  the  freight  and  livery  receipts  were  nearly 
$50,000.  With  a  good  railroad  in  operation,  in  the  place  of 
a  rugged  highway,  and  the  summer  travel  which  it  would 
induce,  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,  that  the  local  busi- 
ness alone  would  afford  receipts  very  far  beyond  the  estimates, 
upon  which  it  is  presumed  the  offer  of  the  Fitchburg  and 
Vermont  and  Massachusetts  companies  to  take  a  lease  of  the 
road  was  based,  that  is,  $21,500  a  year  more  than  running 
expenses. 

Whether  Mr.  Brooks  is  responsible  for  the  delay  in  putting 
the  road  under  contract,  and  for  the  waste  and  damage  which 
have  resulted  from  a  neglect  of  three  years,  or  whether  Mr. 
Bird  did  succeed,  while  a  member  of  the  Council,  in  procur- 
ing an  absolute  injunction,  the  public  cannot  now  well  deter- 
mine, for,  as  the  reader  has  already  observed,  Bird  declares 
that  Mr.  Brooks  had  absolute  power,  that  the  whole  respon- 
sibility rests  with  him,  and  yet  boasts  that  he  "  did  some- 
thing "  towards  preventing  the  completion  of  the  road. 


Since  the  foregoing  pages  were  written,  Mr  Bird  has  pub- 
lished and  distributed  another  pamphlet,  the  remarkable 
audacity  of  which  challenges  our  attention.  If  one  half  of 
the  assertions  it  contains  were  true,  if  one  half  of  its  cal- 
culations and  estimates  could  be  demonstrated,  the  Hoosac 
Tunnel  ought  to  be  abandoned  at  once,  as  the  greatest  folly 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  its  ruins  sacredly  preserved 
as  a  monument  to  coming  generations  of  a  monstrous  popular 
delusion :  and  if  the  epithets  —  swindlers,  tricksters,  liars, 
plunderers,  thieves,  ingrates,  rascals,  traitors  and  fools  — 
which  Mr.  F.  W.  Bird,  of  Wai  pole,  so  freely  and  indiscrimi- 
6 


42 

nately  applies  to  everybody  who  has  advocated  or  favored 
the  building  of  this  Tunnel,  were  deserved;  then  a  very  large 
proportion  of  several  legislatures,  a  majority  of  several 
executive  councils,  and  many  distinguished  citizens  and  state 
officers,  including  the  late  governor  and  attorney  general, 
ought  to  be  lodged  for  the  remainder  of  their  days  either  in 
the  state  prison,  or  the  asylums  for  idiots. 

This  last  publication  of  Bird's  is  mainly  a  repetition, 
"  with  embellishments,"  of  his  previous  pamphlet,  with  the  addi- 
tion of  a  preface  purporting  to  be  the  history  of  tunnel  legisla- 
tion to  the  beginning  of  the  present  year,  a  string  of  calcu- 
lations and  conjectures  as  to  the  capacity  of  the  Western  Rail- 
road to  transport  (  provided  it  were  properly  managed,  and  the 
double  track  completed)  all  the  Western  freight  and  travel 
for  all  future  time,  and  several  pages  of  coarse  denuncia- 
tion of  Mr.  Brooks,  chairman  of  the  Tunnel  Commis- 
sioners, and  the  manner  in  which  he  has  managed  the 
trust  committed  to  him.  The  subdivisions  of  these  subjects 
are : — 

1st.  Tunnel  Legislation.  2d.  Abuse  of  Mr.  Brooks. 
3d.  Power  Drills.  4th.  The  Deerfield  Dam.  5th.  "Por- 
ridge." 6th.  The  Western  compared  with  the  Tunnel  line. 
7th.  The  Possible  Capacity  of  the  Western  Road.  8th. 
The  Cost  and  Time  required  to  Complete  the  Tunnel. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  expose  all  the  misrepresentations 
and  perversion  of  facts  to  which  Mr.  Bird  has  resorted  in 
the  treatment  of  his  subject,-  but  only  enough  of  them  to 
show  what  disreputable  means  the  foes  of  the  Tunnel  are 
capable  of  using  in  order  to  deceive  the  community.  Late 
results  in  the  progress  of  work  at  the  mountain,  and  in  the 
perfection  of  machinery,  will  enable  us  to  illustrate  the  utter 
absurdity  of  several  of  the  most  important  of  Mr.  Bird's 
calculations,  or  rather  speculations,  and  enable  the  reader  to 
judge  what  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  any  of  them. 

In  a  review  of  the  history  of  tunnel  legislation,  as  given 
in  this  pamphlet,  passing  by  the  frequent  charges  of 


43 

"  packed  committees,"  "  deceived  legislatures,"  and  "  tricks 
of  legislative  legerdemain,"  we  come  to  an  account  of  the 
Act  of  April,  1862,  by  which  it  appears  that  the  bill  passed 
was  not  materially  different  from  that  prepared  by  Mr.  Bird, 
and  offered  by  Mr.  Swan.  It  was  entitled,  "  An  Act  for  the 
More  Speedy  Completion  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,"  yet  the 
anti-tunnel  league  considered  its  passage  "  a  substantial 
defeat  of  the  scheme,"  because  they  believed  that  Governor 
Andrew  "was  opposed  to  the  Tunnel,"  and  would  appoint 
commissioners  whose  opinions  were  in  harmony  with  his 
own.  And  the  virtuous  and  honest  member  of  the  "  Third 
House,"  through  whose  adroit  management,  a  bill  bearing  a 
title  so  inconsistent  with  its  purpose,  was  framed,  affects  a 
pious  horror  of  legislative  trickery ! 

Whatever  Mr.  Bird  may  have  to  say  upon  any  of  his 
various  topics,  he  never  forgets  to  abuse  Mr.  Brooks ;  "  Car- 
thago delenda  est"  at  any  rate ;  and  he  returns  to  the  assault 
at  the  beginning  or  end  of  almost  every  chapter,  with  renewed 
spitefulness.  On  page  21  it  is  represented  that  Mr.  Laurie, 
the  engineei  who  had  been  designated  by  the  governor  and 
council  to  make  surveys,  had  a  personal  interview  with  Mr. 
Brooks,  and  that  the  following  colloquy  took  place : — 

"  I  am  here,  Mr.  Brooks,  to  make  the  surveys  ordered." 
"What  order  ?  What  surveys  ?  "  "  The  surveys  ordered  by 
the  governor  and  council."  "  I  have  ordered  no  surveys  and 
want  none.  When  I  need  your  services  I  will  send  for  you. 
Go  about  your  business." 

Even  those  who  have  never  reckoned  Mr.  Bird  a  man  of 
strict  veracity  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  this  story  is  a 
pure  fabrication,  that  no  such  conversation,  and  no  such  inter- 
view ever  took  place.  The  communications  between  the 
two  gentlemen  were  a  letter  from  Mr.  Laurie,  who  was  at 
Hartford,  and  a  reply  by  telegraph  from  Mr.  Brooks,  who 
was  in  Boston.  Mr.  Laurie  wrote,  —  "  Presuming  that  you 
wish  me  to  make  these  surveys,  I  will  come  to  Boston,"  &c. 


44 

Mr.  Brooks  telegraphed,  — "  The  new  survey  has  not  been 
acted  upon  by  commissioners." 

On  the  same  page  of  the  pamphlet  it  is  stated  that  Mr. 
Brooks,  not  being  satisfied  with  Mr.  Laurie's  conclusions,  "  de- 
manded the  suppression  of  some  portions  of  the  report,  and 
the  modification  of  others."  "Mr.  Laurie,  after  making 
such  concessions  as  he  could  honestly  make,  resolutely  re- 
fused to  yield  to  Mr.  Brooks'  imperious  demands  upon  ma- 
terial points."  Now' this  representation  is  just  as  false  as 
the  story  about  the  colloquy.  Mr.  Brooks  did  not  make  any 
such  demands.  An  exposure  of  both  these  fabrications  is 
made  in  a  communication  to  the  Boston  Advertiser  of  March 
10th,  which  contains  copies  of  all  the  correspondence  on 
these  subjects,  between  Mr.  Brooks  and  Mr.  Laurie. 

On  page  23,  we  are  requested  to  "  look  at  the  item  of  the 
amount  of  the  people's  money  applied  by  Mr.  Brooks  to  the 
payment  of  Mr.  'Haupt's  debts,"  than  which  "  there  never 
was  a  more  atrocious  swindle."  By  referring  to  the  records 
of  the  executive  council  for  May,  June  and  July  of  1863,  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  subject  of  paying  these  claims  was  re- 
ferred to  a  committee  of  the  council,  consisting  of  Alfred 
Hitchcock,  F.  W.  Bird  and  Joel  Hay  den  for  special  investi- 
gation. Upon  the  question  of  the  meaning  and  intent  of  the 
Act  of  1862,  and  its  legal  interpretation,  the  committee  took 
counsel  of  Dwight  Foster,  Emory  Washburn,  and  Isaac  R. 
Redfield,  lawyers  who  had  been  designated  by  the  governor, 
as  a  commission  to  whom  should  be  referred  such  questions 
upon  legal  points  as  might  arise  in  prosecuting  the  work, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  advice  of  these  gentlemen,  and 
their  own  convictions,  a  majority  of  the  committee  (Mr. 
Bird  of  course  opposing)  reported  that  the  claims  ought  to 
be  paid.  A  majority  of  the  council  and  the  governor  being 
of  the  same  opinion,  the  claims  were  paid.  The  part  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Brooks  and  his  associates  was  merely  to 
audit  and  allow  them.  They  could  not  draw  a  dollar  from 
the  state-treasury  for  any  purpose  except  upon  the  governor's 


45 

warrant.  If  the  payment  of  these  claims  was  "an  atrocious 
swindle,"  then  the  governor,  a  majority  of  his  council,  and 
the  three  lawyers,  as  well  as  the  commissioners,  were  the 
atrocious  swindlers.  It  would  appear  that  the  incorruptible 
and  virtuous  Bird  was  the  only  person  about  the  state  house, 
at  that  time,  who  could  make  any  pretension  to  honesty  or 
fidelity. 

The  motives  of  Mr.  Bird,  in  these  unscrupulous  attempts 
to  disparage  the  judgment  and  asperse  the  character  of  ^!r. 
Brooks  are  best  known  to  himself,  but  it  will  be  remembered 
that  when  Mr.  Brooks  received  his  appointment  he  was 
thought  to  be  opposed  to  the  tunnel  enterprise.  He  has 
proved  to  be  one  of  its  ablest  and  most  resolute  friends. 
The  disappointment  and  grief  of  Mr.  Bird  may  have  been 
rendered  more  poignant  by  his  defeat  last  fall  as  a  candidate 
for  the  honor  of  representing  his  district  in  the  Legislature, 
a  defeat  which  he  has  publicly  attributed  to  the  opposition  of 
Mr.  Brooks. 

The  only  noteworthy  thing  in  this  pamphlet  concerning 
the  Deerfield  Dam,  is  an  absurd  attempt  to  misrepresent  the 
commissioners'  report  of  its  cost.  They  state  that  it  is 
$125,919.74.  It  was  finished  last  fall.  Mr.  Bird  says  "  the 
dam  will  have  cost  when  finished,  at  least  $275,000,"  and 
thereafter  to  the  end  of  his  chapter  on  that  topic,  assumes 
that  sum  to  be  the  actual  cost.  He  obtains  these  figures  by 
adding  to  the  real  cost  of  the  dam,  that  of  all  the  canals ; 
buildings  and  machinery  which  are  being  constructed  between 
the  dam  and  the  tunnel.  He  might,  with  equal  propriety, 
have  added  the  cost  of  the  Walpole  meeting  house,  or  that 
of  his  own  paper  mill.  In  a  supplementary  note  we  are  in- 
formed that  the  damr  across  the  Connecticut  at  Holyoke, 
1017  feet  long,  cost  about  $115,000.  We  may  assume  that 
Mr.  Bird  applies  these  figures  to  the  present  dam,  and  not  to 
the  one  which  gave  way  some  years  since.  The  cost  of  the 
first  dam  is  not  given,  and  the  inquisitive  reader  might  ask 
what  that  was,  or  whether  the  $115,000  should  not  with 


46 

more  propriety  be  considered  as  an  expenditure  for  repairs 
of  an  old  dam  rather  than  the  cost  of  a  new  one.  However 
that  may  be,  the  cost  of  labor  and  material  at  the  time  the 
new  dam  was  built,  or  the  old  one  repaired,  was  less  than 
one  half  of  the  cost  of  labor  and  material,  at  any  time  since 
the  Deerfield  dam  was  commenced.  It  is  possible  that  a  cheap- 
er structure  might  have  been  built,  which  would  answer  the 
purpose,  but  the  commissioners  and  their  engineers,  warned 
perhaps,  by  the  Holyoke  disaster,  may  be  excused  for  con- 
structing a  work  that  will  not  be  washed  away,  though  done 
at  some  additional  cost  for  its  security. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  Mr.  Bird  absolutely  loves  it  is 
"  porridge,"  and  he  returns  to  this  topic  with  great  vivacity. 
It  may  be  briefly  stated  that  in  December  last,  after  the 
heading  from  the  West  portal  had  been  carried  forward  111 
feet,  progress  was  stopped  by  an  inlet  of  water  from  a  brook 
overhead  and  a  spring  below.  This  water  operating  on  the 
rotten  rock,  produced  what  Mr.  Bird  calls  "  porridge."  It 
was  a  difficulty  which  had  been  foreseen,  but  was  never  re- 
garded by  the  commissioners  or  engineers  as  of  a  formidable 
character.  Soon  after  work  was  suspended  at  this  point, 
responsible  parties  came  forward  with  an  offer  to  construct 
an  arch  lined  with  solid  masonry  through  the  "porridge"  to  the 
Western  shaft,  a  distance  of  about  2000  feet,  for  less  than 
$700,000,-  and  to  furnish  satisfactory  security  for  the  perform- 
ance of  their  contract.  The  offer  was  declined. 

When  Mr.  Bird  learned  that  work  at  this  point  was  sus- 
pended, he  became  jubilant.  He  has  filled  ten  pages  of  his 
two  pamphlets  with  "  porridge,"  and  excited  some  fears  on 
the  part  of  his  friends  that  the  stuff  has  found  access  to  the 
thinking  part  of  his  own  person,  and  "  muddled  "  it  badly. 
But  of  this  the  reader  may  judge  by  noting  on  page  34  of  the 
last  pamphlet  an  assertion  that  the  distance  from  the  West 
portal  to  the  shaft  is  all  demoralized  rock ;  and  on  pages  36 
and  37  a  calculation  that  it  will  cost  $5,430,300  in  gold,  to 
construct  this  section  of  2000  feet !  But  "porridge"  is  unre- 


47 

liable,  and  that  at  the  Hoosac,  has  given  out ;  and  so  Mr. 
Bird's  hopes  and  calculations,  which  were  based  upon  it,  fall 
to  the  ground.  Work  has  been  recently  resumed,  and  twenty- 
seven  feet  beyond  the  point  at  which  it  was  discontinued, 
solid  rock  was  reached,  in  which  the  workmen  are  now  drill- 
ing and  blasting  without  molestation  or  fear  of  "  porridge." 
The  brook  is  passed,  and  in  the  artesian  well  about  half  way 
from  the  portal  to  the  shaft,  solid  rock  has  been  reached  at 
130  feet  above  grade.  "  Porridge  "  has  served  its  friends  a 
mean  trick  •  and  "  well  might  Mr.  Bird  exclaim  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Woolsey  (slightly  altered,)  " 

"  Had  I  but  served  the  truth  with  half  the  zeal 
I  served  my  jjorridge,  it  would  not,  in  my  need, 
Have  left  me  naked  to  mine  enemies." 

The  theoretical  capacity  of  the  Western  Railroad  is  a  fruit- 
ful subject  for  speculations  and  array  of  figures,  but  facts  and 
demonstrated  truths  are  what  practical  men  wish  to  deal  with. 
A  comparison  of  the  Tunnel  and  Western  lines  is  of  no  signifi- 
cance, when  both  are  urgently  needed.  In  1847,  when  the 
Western  Road  was  opened  to  Albany,  it  transported  from 
, Albany  to  Boston  88,438  tons  of  freight,  and  last  year,  only 
87,254  tons,  1184  tons  less.  Yet  in  1847  it  had  no  double 
track,  and  in  1865  it  had  116  miles  of  double  track.  The 
greatest  tonnage  was  116,288,  in  1864:  and  that  same  year, 
588,207  tons  of  through  Eastward  freight  arrived  at  Albany 
and  Troy,  and  the  total  amount  to  those  two  points  was 
3,866,025;  nearly  three  fourths  of  which  was  transported  on 
the  Erie  canal,  an  institution  which  is  entirely  left  out  of 
Mr.  Bird's  calculations.  More  than  six  million  tons  of  freight 
were  brought  from  the  West  last  year  to  the  Hudson  river. 
Of  this  vast  amount  only  a  little  more  than  one  sixtieth 
found  its  way  to  Boston  over  the  Western  Road.  In  1864, 
471,919  tons  of  freight  were  transported  from  Albany  and 
Troy  to  Boston  by  the  circuitous  routes  we  have  mentioned. 

Mr.  Bird   makes  a  calculation  that  the  capacity  of  the 
Western  Road  can  be  so  increased,  by  finishing  the  double 


48 

track,  increasing  the  rolling  stock  and  adding  special  auxiliary 
force  to  draw  its  freight  trains  up  the  steep  grades,  that  it  can 
bring  1,797,120  tons  of  freight  in  a  year.  It  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  he  means  both  local  and  through  freight.  But  his 
"  calculation  "  is  as  baseless  and  flimsy  as  any  of  his  nume- 
rous statistical  bubbles  which  have  already  been  pricked. 
The  best  answer  to  his  whole  argument  is  contained  in  a 
memorialof  the  Albany  Board  of  Trade  to  our  legislature, 
with  some  extracts  from  which,  our  review  of  this  topic  will 
be  closed.  But  a  few  more  of  Mr.  Bird's  misrepresentations 
must  first  be  exposed.  On  page  56  he  represents  Mr.  Brooks 
as  claiming  that  the  whole  through  freight  from  the  West  to 
Boston  eight  years  hence,  will  amount  to  448,101  tons.  This 
estimate  was  made  three  years  ago,  and  the  words  "  eight 
years  hence  "  were  used  at  that  time,  and  not  now,  as  Mr. 
Bird  represents. 

On  page  50,  is  a  list  of  names  purporting  to  have  been 
taken  from  the  original  subscription  list  of  stockholders  in 
the  Troy  and  Greenfield  Railroad.  Mr.  Otis  Clapp  is  repre- 
sented as  having  subscribed  $200  in  "  services ;  "  and  Daniel 
S.  Richardson's  name  is  appended,  with  ciphers  and  exclama- 
tion points.  The  first  of  these  misrepresentations  has 
been  exposed  by  Mr.  Clapp,  who  writes  to  the  Boston  Ad- 
vertiser that  he  never  charged  the  company  for  any  service, 
nor  was  ever  credited  by  them  for  services,  but  that  he  did 
subscribe  and  pay  $1151.43  for  stock  of  the  road.  Mr. 
Richardson  also  writes  to  the  Advertiser,  and  mildly  suggests 
that  he  was  never  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Troy  and 
Greenfield  Railroad.  On  page  51,  E.  H.  Derby  is  repre- 
sented as  being  president  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  —  a  pure 
fabrication ;  and  Alvah  Crocker  as  having  "  large  invest- 
ments "  in  the  same  road,  when  its  books  show  that  at  that 
time  he  owned  but  six  shares  of  stock.  The  truth  is,  Mr. 
Bird  has  110  hesitation  or  scruple  in  using  other  people's 
names  in  the  same  manner  as  he  uses  figures  and  statistics  in 
his  calculations. 


49 

Mr.  Bird  says  lie  never  had  any  communication  or  corre- 
spondence with,  and  never  received  a  dollar  from,  any  person 
connected  with  the  Western  Railroad.  That  may  be ;  but  it  is 
well  known  that  Mr.  D.  L.  Harris, president  of  the  Connecticut 
River  Railroad,  has  been  for  years  the  "fidus  Achates  "  of  Mr. 
Bird  in  "  fighting  the  Tunnel,"  his  colleague  in  the  "  Third 
House,"  his  companion  at  the  Hoosac  Mountain,  and  the 
guide  of  his  inexperienced  feet  in  the  wilderness  of  facts  and 
speculations  of  civil  engineering.  It  is  not  so  well  known, 
but  nevertheless  true,  that  Mr.  Harris  is  made  director  and 
president  of  the  Connecticut  River  Railroad  by  the  influence 
and  vote  of  Chester  W.  Chapin,  president  of  the  Western  road. 
His  zeal  in  the  service  of  his  benefactor  has  been  manifested 
by  an  active  hostility  to  the  Tunnel,  as  persistent  and  unscru- 
pulous as  that  of  Mr.  Bird  j  and,  were  it  possible  for  that 
gentleman  ever  to  act  from  other  than  disinterested  motives, 
or  a  sense  of  public  duty,  his  intimate  relations  with  Mr. 
Harris  might  justify  a  suspicion  that  the  "  sinews  of  war " 
might  be  supplied  through  that  channel.  At  all  events,  we 
may  be  permitted  to  say  that,  if  these  two  men  have  organ- 
ized and  led  the  opposition  to  the  Tunnel  every  winter  for 
the  last  ten  years,  printed  thousands  and  thousands  of 
pamphlets,  and  spent  a  considerable  part  of  each  year  in  the 
lobby,  and  all  this  at  their  own  cost,  from  a  sense  of  public 
duty,  then  they  have  better  deserved  statues  in  front  of  the 
State  House  than  Webster  or  Mann  j  and  the  Western  Rail- 
road management  is  even  meaner  than  it  has  been  generally 
considered.  A  corporation  must  indeed  be  without  a  soul, 
which  can  look  upon  such  sublime  virtue,  and  suffer  it  to 
pay  its  own  expenses.  But  enough  of  Mr.  Bird  and  his 
motives. 

The  statements  we  have  made  in  regard  to  the  necessity 
of  a  new  route  are,  in  every  particular  fully  confirmed  by  a 
memorial  which  has  been  recently  addressed  to  our  Legis- 
lature from  the  Albany  Board  of  Trade,  through  a  committee 
of  seven  of  their  number,  The  gentlemen  comprising  this 
7 


50 

board  are  not  theorists,  but  practical,  clear-headed  and  reliable 
business  men,  who  have  been  compelled  by  the  urgent  de- 
mands of  yearly  increasing  business,  to  appeal  to  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  for  aid  and  relief. 

From  a  table  in  their  memorial,  it  appears,  that,  while  the 
increase,  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  of  miles  of  railroad  in 
eleven  other  States  through  which  Western  products  press  to 
the  seaboard,  averaged  169  per  cent,  that  of  Massachusetts 
was  only  26  per  cent.  But  we  proceed  to  quote  from  the 
memorial :  — 

"  Twelve  years  of  experience  have  convinced  us  that  the 
Western  Railroad  is  wholly  inadequate  to  the  prompt,  rapid 
and  cheap  transportation  of  the  commodities  so  extensively 
consumed  by  the  people  of  the  New  England  States.  To 
illustrate  the  diversion  of  trade  from  the  natural  route  to 
Boston  via  Albany,  occasioned  by  the  incapacity  of  the 
Western  road  to  meet  the  wants  of  commerce,  we  call  your 
attention  to  the  article  of  flour.  We  collate  our  facts  from 
reports  of  the  Boston  Board  of  Trade  arid  the  official  re- 
ports of  the  Western  Railroad.  In  1865,  the  Western  road, 
according  to  its  own  report,  transported  from  Albany  and 
Troy  to  Boston,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  barrels  less 
than  it  did  in  1847,  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  During  the 
thirteen  years,  including  1848  and  1860,  the  average  of  its 
transportation  of  this  article,  per  annum,  between  the  Hudson 
and  Boston  was  287,698  barrels.  For  the*  same  period, 
there  were  received  in  Boston,  via  other  and  more  circuitous 
routes,  an  average  per  annum  of  670,233  barrels.  The 
next  four  years,  including  1861  and  1864,  the  average  per 
annum  by  the  Western  road  was  572,637  barrels.  Boston 
received  from  other  routes  an  average,  per  annum  for  the 
same  period,  of  824,937  barrels. 

Now,  we  hold  that,  by  the  natural  laws  of  trade,  most  of 
this  vast  quantity  of  flour,  which  reaches  Boston  in  these 
roundabout  ways,  would  have  left  the  Hudson  river  at  Albany 
and  Troy,  had  the  requisite  facilities  for  a  cheap  and  rapid 
transportation  been  afforded.  About  one-fourth  of  the 
average  quantity  received  in  Boston  from  other  routes,  for 
the  four  years  named  above,  reached  that  place  via  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  and  Portland,  aggregating  956,945  barrels. 


51 

Taking  Detroit  as  the  starting  point,  the  distance  from  there 
to  Boston  via  Portland,  is  228  miles  greater  than  the  route 
to  Boston  via  Albany.  Yet,  owing  to  the  inadequate  rail- 
road facilities  between  Albany  and  Boston,  the  consignors  of 
this  flour  prefer  to  send  it  via  Portland,  and  pay  the  charges 
on  228  miles  of  additional  -  distance.  What  is  true  of  the 
article  of  flour  is  equally  true  of  all  the  staple  commodities 
produced  at  the  West  and  consumed  by  the  New  England 
States.  Large  quantities  were  last  year  turned  aside  at 
Rochester  and  other  points  in  our  own  State,  to  say  nothing 
of  points  west  of  Buffalo,  and  sent  to  Boston  and  contiguous 
localities  via  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad.  Boston  is 
even  now  receiving  flour  from  Albany,  Troy  and  Schenec- 
tady,  by  way  of  Rutland,  a  distance  of  some  fifty  miles  fur- 
ther than  by  the  Western  road." 

"  We  have  no  words  but  of  commendation  for  the  noble 
work  which  your  State  is  pushing  with  such  energy  to  open 
a  still  shorter  route  to  the  Hudson.  We  have  no  feelings  of 
jealousy  toward  the  new  route,  because  it  terminates  in  ano- 
ther city  than  Albany ;  a  healthy  rivalry  will  do  more  than 
moral  suasion,  to  wake  up  the  old  route  from  that  lethargy 
which  seems  so  near  akin  to  death.  Had  the  Hoosac  Tun- 
nel .been  completed  twelve  years  ago,  we  have  reason  to 
believe  it  probable  that  the  people  of  Massachusetts  alone 
would  have  saved  an  amount  in  the  way  of  cheap  transporta- 
tion, nearly  if  not  quite  sufficient  to  equal  its  cost." 

"  We  have  'spoken  more  freely  in  this  paper  than  might  be 
considered  becoming  in  us,  but  for  the  fact  that  in  the  day  of 
its  need,  Albany,  along  with  Massachusetts,  came  to  the  aid 
of  the  Western  Railroad.  And  now  that  we  are  suffering  so 
much  from  its  insufficiency  to  meet  the  public  want,  we  trust 
the  presentation  of  these  views  and  facts  will  not  be  regarded 
as  obtrusive,  but  rather  as  properly  coming  from  those,  who, 
with  you,  aided  to  produce  a  common  benefit,  and  are  now 
suffering  with  you  from  a  common  cause." 

The  cost  of  the  whole  work  was  estimated  by  the  com- 
missioners in  their  first  report,  at  $5,719,330,  the  estimate 
being  based  upon  ordinary  labor  at  one  dollar  a  day,  and  of 
materials  at  a  corresponding  rate.  Nothing  has  yet  occurred 


52 

to  invalidate  this  estimate,  excepting  the  advance  of  the  cost 
of  material  and  labor,  an  incidental  misfortune  common  to 
every  public,  as  well  as  private  enterprise,  requiring  labor 
and  material,  which  has  been  prosecuted  during  the  last  three 
years.  It  is  certain  that  these  high  rates  will  greatly  de- 
cline, perhaps  nearly  to  their  former  level  within  a  year ; 
but  admitting  that  the  Commissioners'  estimate  should  be 
swelled  through  these  incidental  causes  to  the  sum  of  eight 
millions,  would  such  an  increase  of  expense  justify  the  aban- 
donment of  this  great  enterprise,  upon  which  so  much  has 
already  been  expended,  and  at  the  very  period  in  its  progress 
when  the  most  formidable  obstacles  in  its  way  have  been 
surmounted,  and  its  success  become  a  certainty  ?  Had  the 
Western  Eailroad  been  utterly  destroyed  last  year  by  a  rebel 
raid,  as  were  some  Southern  roads  by  the  march  of  Sher- 
man, or  by  any  conceivable  cause,  would  the  consideration  of 
twenty-five,  or  thirty,  or  even  forty  millions,  prevent  its  being 
rebuilt  at  once  ?  Why  then  should  two  millions  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  Tunnel  line,  which  is  now  a  greater  necessity 
than  the  Western  road  was  at  the  time  of  its  construction  ? 

The  time  required  to  complete  the  work,  without  the  aid 
of  machinery,  was  estimated  by  the  Commissioners  at  eleven 
years  and  four  months ;  and  with  the  aid  of  such  machine 
drills  and  power  as  had  already  been  applied  with  success  at 
Mt.  Cenis,  at  seven  years  and  a  half.  The  work  at  Mt. 
Cenis  was  commenced  in  1857,  and  up  to  July,  1861,  2142 
feet  had  been  excavated  by  hand  labor ;  the  machine  drills 
were  then  applied,  and  the  Italian  government  has  recently  an- 
nounced that  the  work  will  be  finished  by  the  close  of  the 
year  1870.  It  will  be  seven  and  a  half  miles  long.  The 
Hoosac  Tunnel  will  be  about  four  and  a  half  miles  long,  and 
at  the  present  time  it  has  been  excavated  4675  feet,  and 
shafts  have  been  sunk  to  the  depth  of  575  feet.  The  ma- 
chine drills  will  be  applied  in  a  few  days ;  but  they  are  drills 
which  will  do  twice,  and  possibly  three  times  the  work  of 
those  at  Mt.  Cenis. 


53 

To  the  sound  judgment,  energy,  and  untiring  perseverance  of 
Mr.  Brooks,  and  the  inventive  genius  and  skill  of  Mr.  Stephen 
F.  Gates,  of  Boston,  and  Mr.  Charles  Burleigh,  of  Fitchburg, 
belongs  the  credit  of  perfecting  a  pneumatic  drill,  by  means 
of  which  our  great  tunnel  will  be  completed  much  within  the 
time  named  by  the  Commissioners,  and  with  a  reduction  of 
their  estimate  of  its  cost  by  hand  labor  of  several  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  We  have  seen  this  drill  operated  by  com- 
pressed air,  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  blows  a  minute,  each 
blow  given  with  a  force  of  more  than  five  hundred  pounds, 
cut  an  inch  and  a  quarter  hole  in  a  block  of  Hoosac  rock, 
thirty-eight  inches  in  thirteen  minutes,  without  changing  its 
points.  Its  superiority  over  the  Mt.  Cenis  drill  consists  in 
its  lightness,  automatic  feed,  and  smaller  size.  The  Mt. 
Cenis  drill  is  eight  feet  long,  and  weighs  six  hundred  pounds, 
and  the  whole  machine  moves  forward  in  feeding.  The 
Hoosac  drill  is  four  feet  long,  weighs  two  hundred  and  eight 
pounds,  and  can  be  handled  by  two  men.  In  feeding,  the 
drill  alone  advances,  and  in  such  manner  as  to  accommodate 
itself  to  any  kind  of  rock  it  may  encounter,  whether  hard  or 
soft.  Its  points  are  sharpened  in  a  die  by  half  a  dozen 
blows  of  the  hammer.  It  will  do  the  work  of  twenty  men ; 
and,  finally,  sixteen  of  them  can  be  applied  to  a  surface  upon 
which  only  nine  of  the  Mt.  Cenis  drills  can  be  used. 

The  operation  of  this  drill  has  already  been  witnessed  by 
hundreds  of  persons,  among  them  machinists,  engineers,  and 
stone  masons,  and  not  one  of  them  entertains  a  doubt  that  it 
will  do  all  which  is  claimed  for  it  by  the  inventors.  But  the 
carriages  are  nearly  ready,  and  these  little  machines  will 
shortly  be  put  to  their  work.  The  friends  of  the  Tunnel 
have  no  fears  of  the  result. 


Massachusetts  has  always  led  her  sister  States.     At  the 
call  to  arms,  her  sons  have  been  first  in  the  field,  and  first  to 


54 

die  for  the  common  good.  Her  schools  and  colleges,  her 
institutions  of  charity,  and  her  statutes  have  furnished  models 
for  the  new  states  of  the  great  West,  and  for  foreign  republics. 
In  her  manufactures  and  mechanic  arts,  in  the  products  of  her 
inventive  genius,  in  maritime  enterprise,  in  the  building  of 
canals  and  railroads,  and  in  erery  undertaking  to  develop 
the  resources  and  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  she 
has  been  first  and  foremost.  With  so  proud  a  record,  and 
with  almost  exhaustless  means  at  her  command,  we  do  not 
believe  our  noble  state  is  yet  ready  to  abandon  the  lead ; 
nor  that  the  consideration  of  a  few  millions  of  dollars  will 
prevent  her  from  breaking  down  the  barrier  which  divides 
us  from  the  West,  and  by  which  the  great  stream  of  Western 
traffic  has  been  so  long  checked  and  diverted.  Rather  let  us 
trust  that,  by  wise  legislation,  a  liberal  policy,  and  a  cordial 
support  of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  the  conduct  of  this  enter- 
prise is  entrusted,  the  great  work  of  De  Witt  Clinton  will 
be  perfected,  and  the  noble  design  of  Loammi  Baldwin  exe- 
cuted, by  the  completion  of  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  before  it 
shall  be  announced  from  Sardinia  that  the  Alps  are  pierced 
and  France  and  Itaty  have  joined  hands  under  the  Grand 
Vallon. 


M207665 


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